Many people have never heard of a red colobus, yet they are Africa’s most imperilled group of monkeys.
There are 17 species of red colobus found in tropical forests from Senegal in west Africa to the Zanzibar archipelago in east Africa. These photogenic monkeys have aesthetically appealing hairdos, coat colours and colour patterns. They weigh, on average, between 5kg and 12kg and take daring, long-distance leaps between trees to find foods that other primates find difficult to digest, like leaves and unripe fruit.
We are primate experts who specialise in studying how to conserve red colobus and other primates. With experts from Africa, Europe and the United States, we drew up the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red Colobus Conservation Action Plan. This five year plan, which runs from 2021 to 2026, aims to make the red colobus a high priority animal for conservation purposes.
