Piliocolobus temminckii (Kuhl, 1820)

Russell A. Mittermeier, Anthony B. Rylands & Don E. Wilson, 2013, Cercopithecidae, Handbook of the Mammals of the World – Volume 3 Primates, Barcelona: Lynx Edicions, pp. 550-755 : 705-706

88.

Temminck’s Red Colobus

Piliocolobus temminckii

French: Colobe de Temminck / German: Temminck-Stummelaffe / Spanish: Colobo rojo de Senegal

Other common names: Temminck’s Bay Colobus

Taxonomy. Colobus temminkii [sic] Kuhl, 1820 ,

type locality unknown.

Modern taxonomic arrangements of the colobus monkeys either divide the red colobus and the Olive Colobus into two genera, Piliocolobus and Procolobus , respectively, or consider them to belong to one genus, Procolobus , with two subgenera ( Procolobus for the Olive Colobus and Piliocolobus for the red colobus). We follow here C. P. Groves in his publications of 2001 and 2007 in using two genera. The exact boundary between P. badius and P. temminckii is unclear, but the two are believed to be geographically separated. Monotypic.

Distribution. From the Gambia and Upper Senegal rivers through SW Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau (absent E of Rio Corubal, except for a supposed sighting at Catio, near the border with Guinea) to NW Guinea (E to Kopulau Camp, 12° 24° N, 13° 34° 48” W); possibly in NW Sierra Leone. Although reported from the Fouta Djallon Highlands in Guinea, there are no published records available to confirm this.

Descriptive notes. Body measurements are not available but museum records suggest Temminck’s Red Colobus is similar in size to (perhapsa little smaller than) the Upper Guinea Red Colobus ( P. badius ). It is medium gray dorsally (extending to upper parts of limbs), with flanks and limbs, and a collar round the neck, light orange-red, becoming whitish on the undersides. Thereis a triangular patch of white fur on the buttocks. Fingers and toes darken to rufous. Face is dark with rings of pink encircling the eyes, and nose is broad and upturned, raised on a fleshy base as in the Upper Guinea Red Colobus . Scrotum of Temminck’s Red Colobus appears to be less pendulous than in the Upper Guinea Red Colobus , and the perineal organ is very small. It appears that the typical Temminck’s Red Colobusis confined to areas of Gambia and Senegal north of the Gambia River, and south of this river, there is a gradual darkening and loss of the red collar and white strip on the underside. There seems to be a fairly gradual transition between this pale colored dry-forest form and the typical deeply colored rainforest form. In a mtDNA tree, N. Ting found Temminck’s Red Colobus nested among the Upper Guinea Red Colobus , with whom it also shares very similar vocalizations.

Habitat. Dry deciduous and gallery forest, usually near open bodies of water, in Senegal. Temminck’s Red Colobus is unique among red colobus in that it often lives in savanna woodland. In the 1970s, A. Galat-Luong and G. Galat reported that the northernmost population in Saloum (Senegal) lived only in tropical, dense high forest, but with widespread degradation and loss of these forests, in recent years, Temminck’s Red Colobus have begun to occupy more open habitats, such as degraded remnants of gallery forests with interrupted canopies, and even true wooded savanna, mangrove swamps, and farmland. Researchers in Saloum in the 1970s never found Temminck’s Red Colobus away from tall dense forest, but with forest loss and degradation by the 1990s, they were found in open woodland habitat and even mangroves more than one-third of the time, often associating with the open woodland Green Monkeys ( Chlorocebus sabaeus ). As forest dwellers, Temminck’s Red Colobus would generally travel and forage ¢.10 m above the ground. In more damaged forests and open habitats, their average height above the ground can drop by nearly half (a little more than 5 m), and they actually go to the ground more often. In the Fathala Reserve of the Saloum Delta National Park in coastal Senegal, changes in diet, tendencies toward terrestriality and associations with other primates (particularly Green Monkeys), use of open habitats, and use of mangrove swamps seem to be successive accommodations to loss of their preferred forests.

Food and Feeding. Temminck’s Red Colobus eat young leaves and leaf buds, along with fruits and seeds. Mature leaves, flowers, and flower buds are also consumed. Diets of six groups, studied by B. Gatinot in the Fathala Reserve in 1973-1974, contained 21-8% young leaves, 20-1% mature leaves, 16-5% buds, 14-4% flowers, 9-5% fruits, and 11-4% other items. Diets included 24 species of plants. D. Diouck also carried out a dietary study of two groups in Fathala in 1994-1996. Diets had changed considerably from the 1973-1974 study and included more young leaves and fruits, fewer mature leaves and buds, and considerably fewer flowers: 56-7% young leaves, 18-:8% fruits, 13-4% buds, 6-3% mature leaves, 0-8% flowers, and 4% other items. The number of plant species in the diet had dropped from 24 to 17. This change was associated with changes in Fathala during this period; c.75% of the gallery forest where they had been studied in the 1970s had been lost, and the forest that remained was largely degraded, with broken canopies and a 30% reduction in the diversity of woody plants. Temminck’s Red Colobus spent more time on or near the ground and included more herbs, grasses, grass seeds, and groundnuts in their diets.

Breeding. Female Temminck’s Red Colobus display large sexual swellings during the periovulatory period. A single young is born after a gestation of 173-174 days. Neonates are the same general color as adults but slightly lighter (light beige or gray with a darker back and a bit of orange on the tail).

Activity patterns. Temminck’s Red Colobusis diurnal and arboreal, but it can become increasingly terrestrial when adapting to reduced and degraded forest habitats (e.g. being forced to travel and forage in savanna and woodland environments surrounding gallery forest). At Abuko,it rested for 52% of the day, fed for 21%, traveled for 13%, and engaged in social activities for 13%; the remaining 1% was dedicated to a variety of other activities.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. Home range sizes of Temminck’s Red Colobus are 11-34 ha. Group sizes typically are 12-28 individuals, but there has been evidence of exceptionally large groups (e.g. up to 62 individuals). Groups typically have multiple adult males and females, and both sexes disperse. D. Starin found that females groom mostly among themselves, and males only infrequently groom others. Curiously, Temminck’s Red Colobus may also groom Green Monkeys when they temporarilyjoin their groups after dispersing from their natal groups. Predators recorded include African rock python (Python sebae) and, when near to or on the ground, dogs and Spotted Hyenas (Crocuta crocuta).

Status and Conservation. CITES Appendix II. Classified as Endangered on The IUCN Red List (as Procolobus badius temminckii ). Temminck’s Red Colobusis listed as Class B in the African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Its major threat is habitat loss due to forest conversion by agriculture, overgrazing, fires, and tree-cutting, combined with decreasing rainfall in the part of West Africa where it occurs. Although hunting is also a threat to Temminck’s Red Colobus (particularly in the southern part ofits distribution), it appears to be somewhat less affected than Miss Waldron’s Red Colobus ( P. waldronae ) and the Upper Guinea Red Colobus . In The Gambia, monkeys are hunted more as farm pests than for consumption as meat, and red colobus are minor farm pests compared with baboons, Green Monkeys, and Patas Monkeys ( Erythrocebus patas ). In Senegal, there are probably fewer than 400-500 Temminck’s Red Colobus surviving in Saloum Delta National Park and probably fewer than 100 in the isolated Niokolo-Koba National Park and north-western Guinea. They also occur in Abuko and River Gambia national parks in Gambia, Cufada National Park in Guinea-Bissau, and Badiar National Park in Guinea. They may have been extirpated from Basse Casamance National Park in Senegal. The absence of many large and well-managed protected areas means that the overall population of Temminck’s Red Colobusis likely to continue to decline, particularly in the southern part ofits distribution where civil conflict has persisted and hunting pressure is increasing.

Bibliography. Diouck (1999), Dorst & Dandelot (1970), Dupuy & Verschuren (1982), Galat-Luong (1983, 1988, 1995), Galat-Luong & Galat (2005), Galat & Galat-Luong (1985), Galat et al. (2009a), Gatinot (1974, 1975, 1977), Groves (2001, 2007b), Grubb et al. (2003), Gunderson (1977), Harding (1984), Oates et al. (1996/1997), Starin (1981, 1988, 1991, 2001, 2002), Ting (2008).

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Distribution. From the Gambia and Upper Senegal rivers through SW Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau (absent E of Rio Corubal, except for a supposed sighting at Catio, near the border with Guinea) to NW Guinea (E to Kopulau Camp, 12° 24° N, 13° 34° 48” W); possibly in NW Sierra Leone. Although reported from the Fouta Djallon Highlands in Guinea, there are no published records available to confirm this.