Locals believe that red colobus have the power to kill trees and sicken those who eat their meat. In the East African language, kiSwahili (pronounced key-SWA-heel-ee), the Zanzibar red colobus are called kima punju, or “poison monkey.” Struhsaker, a research scientist with the Department of Biological Anthropology at Duke University who has studied red colobus monkeys since 1969. Without human interference, an individual red colobus’ life expectancy is 20 or 25 years, said Dr. The tails are still used today by traditional healers, despite the monkeys’ being legally protected by the Zanzibar government. Mature red colobus can reach lengths of 4 feet, including their prized tail, once used by locals to create symbols of power for village chiefs. Young males do this as well, but will live as bachelors until they find a receptive group. Young female colobus eventually leave the group to join a new one. Occasionally, adult males suckle as well. Females breast-feed their young for about 17 months.
Typically, a group of one to six males leads a harem of up to 30 females and young, with the females giving birth to young one at a time. Isolated on the island for 10,000 years, the Zanzibar red colobus population has dwindled to fewer than 2,000 individuals.īrilliant, radiating spikes of black and white hair frame the face of this monkey species, while the back and tail are a striking red.Īlluding to the species’ reduced thumb, colobus is Greek for “mutilated.” An actual thumb can hinder hand-over-hand swinging, and without one, the colobus can rapidly disappear in the red mahogany trees. Lying just south of the equator in the Indian Ocean, Zanzibar experiences temperatures above 100 degrees and has a tropical monsoon climate that seasonally floods its ground water forests, the main habitat of the monkeys. Though famous for its role in the slave and spice trades in the 1700s and 1800s, the island is known among primatologists as the only home of the Zanzibar red colobus monkey, a species distinct from the species of red colobus found on mainland Africa.
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