Colobus

The colobus diet consists mostly of leaves and some seeds or unripe fruit.

At the Zoo, colobus eat a prepared leaf-eater biscuit, browse, vegetables, and minimal amounts of fruit.

Colobus have a wide range throughout equatorial Africa, from eastern Nigeria and Cameroon eastwards to South Sudan and Uganda. Disconnected populations occur in Ethiopia and Kenya.

Spending the majority of their time in the trees, colobus live in a wide range of forest types.

Leopards, crowned hawk eagles, and occasionally chimpanzees prey on this species

The main threat to colobus is habitat loss due to increased human settlement, firewood poaching, and forest clearing for agriculture. They are also hunted for bushmeat and pelts in the western part of their range.

The colobus's body is primarily black fur, with a long, white ornamental mantle extending from the shoulder to the hip, connecting around the lower torso. The long tail has a white tuft of fur at its end and a white stripe on each thigh. The gray face lacks fur and is surrounded by white fur, with bushy cheek hairs. When they are born, colobus are usually almost all white, gaining their adult coloration within four months,

Their hind legs are longer and stronger than other monkeys, allowing them to climb with ease and leap great distances using branches as springboards. Their long fur and tails have a parachute effect as they descend through branches when leaping. As they jump from tree to tree, their tails provide balance. They have a significantly reduced thumb on their hands and elongated fingers, which allows their hands to act like hooks for swinging.

Because they must eat such a large quantity of leaves, colobus have specialized stomachs like ruminants, such as cows, giraffes, and sheep. This complex digestive system helps break down the hard-to-digest material.

Colobus live in a harem or group with one dominant male who usually has exclusive breeding access with the females. Males reach maturity by 6 years and females at 4 years. A female gives birth to one offspring after nearly six months. She will have one dependent baby at a time, so she will reproduce once every two years. At birth, colobus have primarily white fur.

Colobus will participate in alloparenting, meaning females will mutually handle infants, sharing the responsibility with the mother. If the infant cries, the mother will respond. Males do not help raise the infant and do not usually interact with them until the infant is older.

Most of the sounds colobus use to communicate are not audible to humans, including tongue clicking and lip-smacking. You may occasionally see the male colobus at the Zoo jumping around the yard from branch to branch, vocalizing loudly. This normal behavior is called ‘croaking’ and is his way of communicating his territory.

Colobus also communicate with visual signs like flapping fringe fur, facial expressions, and body postures. They will also use touch in playing, fighting, and grooming to communicate and socialize.

Like all primates, colobus are highly social animals. They live in family groups composed of a dominant male, several females, and their young. Males leave their birth groups before they are fully mature, either by choice or by force, and live alone or in small bachelor groups. Some will eventually take over a harem of their own. Each group has its territory in the tree canopy that is well-defined and defended.

Colobus monkeys spend most of their time sitting in the treetops, eating and socializing. Occasionally, the group does venture to the ground. They take turns sleeping at night so that one troop member is always awake and watching for predators.