colobus

colobus, any of some dozen species of long-tailed tree-dwelling and generally gregarious monkeys native to eastern, central, and western Africa. Colobus monkeys are active during the day and are able to make long leaps between trees. The three genera of colobus are all more or less thumbless and can be distinguished by colour: black-and-white colobus (genus Colobus), red colobus (genus Piliocolobus), and olive colobus (genus Procolobus).

The five species of black-and-white colobus are slender, with long silky fur. Although the black colobus (C. satanas) is completely black, the other four species are partially white. The young are white at birth. The best-known species is the Abyssinian colobus, or mantled guereza (C. guereza), of the East African mountains, including Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro. This colobus has a long beautiful veil of white hair along each flank and a long white brush on the tail. The pelts are valued by native populations as ornaments, and at one time European demand for the fur was so great that large numbers of these monkeys were slaughtered annually. Black-and-white colobus are about 55–60 cm (22–24 inches) long, with a tail that is significantly longer than the body. Adult females weigh about 8 kg (18 pounds), adult males 9.5 to 10 kg. They live in small groups of 1 or 2 males and 3 to 10 females. Each group lives in a territory in the trees, which the males mark by a “jumping-roaring display” consisting of a loud rattling call accompanied by a vigorous display of leaping about and dropping from tree crown to lower branches.

The five or more species of red colobus are brown or black with red markings and are about half a metre (1.6 feet) long, excluding the 40–80-cm tail. In large species, such as the bay colobus (Piliocolobus badius) of West Africa, both sexes average 8 to 8.5 kg, though the Zanzibar red colobus (P. kirkii) weighs only 5.5 kg. Unlike black-and-white colobus, red colobus tend to live in large troops sometimes numbering 60 or more, with each troop including several adult males. Red colobus are not territorial, and they do not have such loud calls or dramatic displays. In many regions they are extremely abundant, but, where their forest habitat has been altered by logging or fire, they are much less resilient than black-and-white colobus. Several races of the red colobus are endangered, and some subspecies of red colobus have apparently become extinct since the middle of the 20th century. The other colobus species are declining in population and are variously listed as vulnerable or rare. The olive colobus (Procolobus verus) is a small monkey, weighing only 4.5 kg, with short olive-coloured fur. It lives in West Africa, where it is not especially rare but is very quiet and secretive and therefore seldom seen. Neither red nor olive colobus survive very long in captivity.

Red and olive colobus share an unusual feature not seen among black-and-white colobus. Like some other Old World monkeys, the females have very large periodic swellings around the sex organs, but, uniquely, the subadult males also develop swellings, and these exactly mimic those of the female. It is thought that the swellings allow young males to remain in the troop without being evicted by adult males, as their so-called perineal organ is lost with maturity.

The three genera of colobus monkeys are classified in the subfamily Colobinae, which also includes leaf monkeys such as langurs. All Colobinae have complex stomachs adapted to fermenting a vegetarian diet. Colobinae is a subfamily of Old World monkeys (family Cercopithecidae).