Roloway monkey
| Roloway monkey | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Primates |
| Family: | Cercopithecidae |
| Genus: | Cercopithecus |
| Species: | C. roloway |
| Binomial name | |
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Cercopithecus roloway (Schreber, 1774) |
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| Synonyms | |
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palatinus (Wagner, 1855) |
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palatinus (Wagner, 1855)
The roloway monkey (Cercopithecus roloway) is an endangered species of Old World monkey found in a small area of eastern Ivory Coast and the forests of Ghana, between the Sassandra and Pra Rivers. Traditionally, it has been considered a subspecies of the Diana monkey (C. diana).
The roloway monkey is similar to other species of guenons but is distinguished by its lengthy beard and broader diadem-like browband. Like its closest relative the Diana monkey (C. diana), its face and much of its fur are black. It has a white beard, chest, and throat; there are a white stripe along each thigh and a deep reddish or orange patch on its back. On the inside of the thighs, the fur is whitish, yellowish, or reddish. The body length ranges from 40 to 55 centimetres, with a tail of 50 to 75 cm. Its weight is between 4 and 7 kilograms.
Roloway monkeys consume a diverse array of varying insects, fruit, seeds, and flowers. They can feed on the plant parts of roughly 130 species of trees, climbers, and epiphytes. Like many omnivores, roloway monkeys also consume mature fruit pulp, arthropods, oil-rich seeds- and young leaves. Their food sources usually consist of twigs and small supports in the terminal branches of trees in their infancy and within large woody climbers.
Roloway monkeys dwell in the canopies of jungles and rainforests where they reside and sleep in the branches of primeval trees. They are typically diurnal and sleep throughout the West African nights.
The species is arboreal, and forms social groups of 15 to 30 individuals, typically with 1 male, around 10 females, and their children. It is commonplace for the males of groups of roloway monkeys to head off elsewhere on their own, whereas the females will stay with the same group they were born into. This makes it harder for breeding to continue to be as fluent as it was once before, especially given the depreciation of forest areas in Ghana that suits this breed of monkey. They give birth typically to one monkey at a time, with a period of around 5 months required for each baby to be conceived and then born. The life span of a roloway monkey is about 20 years in the wild, and those in captivity can stay alive for more than 30 years.
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Wikipedia