Angolan colobus
( Angolan black-and-white colobus )
- Colobus angolensis
- IUCN Status: Vulnerable
- Trend: decreasing
General Information
The Angolan colobus (Colobus angolensis) is a primate species of Old World monkey belonging to the genus Colobus.
Description
Like all black-and-white colobi, the Angola colobus has black fur and a black face, surrounded by long, white locks of hair. It also has a mantle of white hair on the shoulders. The long, thin tail can be either black or white, but the tip is always white. There is a significant regional variation in the total amount of white on the body and the length of the fur. Animals that live in the mountains have longer, thicker fur than animals from the lowlands to protect them against the cold.
The Angola colobus has a head-body length of 50 to 70 cm, with the males usually being larger than females. The tail is about 75 cm long, and the body weight varies between 9 and 20 kg.
Ecology & Behaviour
All Colobus species are very sociable and live in groups of up to several hundred animals, although most groups are much smaller. Their diet consists of mostly leaves, but also lesser amounts of fruit and seeds.
Distribution & Habitat
They can be found in Angola, Burundi, Congo, The Democratic Republic of the, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, United Republic of, Uganda and Zambia.
Out of Eight subspecies that are recognized, two occur in Zambia;
- Colobus angolensis angolensis (Sclater’s Angola Colobus) occurs in northeastern Angola, north to the great bend of the Congo River and southwards to perhaps extreme northwestern Zambia (Bocian and Anderson 2013). C. a. angolensis became locally extinct before 1990 in the Domaine de Chasse de Swa-Kibula in southwestern DRC (Dino 2014).
- Colobus angolensis sharpei (Sharpe’s Angola Colobus) inhabits areas around Lake Rukwa in southwestern Tanzania to north Malawi and northeastern Zambia. This subspecies might occur in northern Mozambique (Groves and Ting 2013).
Diet
All Colobus species are very sociable and live in groups of up to several hundred animals, although most groups are much smaller. Their diet consists of mostly leaves, but also lesser amounts of fruit and seeds.
Reproduction
All Colobus species are very sociable and live in groups of up to several hundred animals, although most groups are much smaller. Their diet consists of mostly leaves, but also lesser amounts of fruit and seeds.
Share:
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Chordata
- Class: Mammalia
- Order: Primates
- Suborder: Haplorhini
- Family: Cercopithecidae
- Genus: Colobus
- Length: 50 to 70 cm
- Weight: 9 to 20 kg
- Tail Length: avg. 75 cm
