Miss Waldron's red colobus
| Miss Waldron's red colobus | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Primates |
| Family: | Cercopithecidae |
| Genus: | Piliocolobus |
| Species: | P. badius |
| Subspecies: | P. b. waldronae |
| Trinomial name | |
|
Piliocolobus badius waldronae (Hyman in Lowe, 1936) |
|
Miss Waldron's red colobus (Piliocolobus badius waldronae) is a subspecies of the western red colobus native to West Africa. It has not been officially sighted since 1978 and was considered extinct in 2000. However, new evidence suggests that a very small number of these monkeys may be living in the southeast corner of Côte d'Ivoire. The IUCN Red List notes Miss Waldron's red colobus as critically endangered.
Miss Waldron's red colobus was discovered in December 1933 by Willoughby P. Lowe, a British Museum collector who had shot eight specimens of the animal. Lowe named it after a fellow museum employee, Miss F. Waldron, a colleague on the expedition.
Black fur covers the majority of Miss Waldron's red colobus, but a distinctive pattern of bright red fur can be found on its forehead and thighs, allowing it to be distinguished from conspecifics. An Old World monkey, it grows to a height of about 3 feet (1 m), with a head that is small for its frame. No photograph of a living Miss Waldron's red colobus is known to exist.
High-canopy forests (rainforests) in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire serve as the exclusive habitat of Miss Waldron's red colobus. The monkey usually formed large family groups of 20 or more. It is a social and highly vocal animal, frequently communicating with others using loud calls, shrieks and chattering. Its strategy for safety depends on using the many eyes and ears of the group.
Fruit, seeds and foliage provide the primary food source of Miss Waldron's red colobus. The western red colobus frequently is hunted and eaten by larger carnivores, including common chimpanzees (specifically western chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes verus, in the range of P. b. waldronae), leopards, pythons, eagles and humans.
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