GREAT APES OF AFRICA
Introduction
East Africa is a large tropical region comprised of Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania. The primary vegetation types of east Africa are grassland, bush land and woodland but most of the regions species richness and endemism is associated with the moist vegetation types. Primates are eutherian mammals. most of the primates have comparatively big brains and a good depth of vision. Uganda is a home to 20 primate species with Kibale national park (the primate capital of the world), Tanzania containing the highest numbers. They can also be found in Cameroon, Sahara Desert, Niger, the democratic republic of Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Rwanda etc.
Primate facts
They are estimated 704 species and sub species of primates. They are mammals that have typically developed brains, forward facing color vision, flexible hands and feet with opposable thumbs and fingernails. Primates have lower development raters than other similarly sized mammals and reach maturity later but have longer life spans. With the exception of humans, who live thought the globe, most primates live in tropical or subtropical regions? They are divided into great apes, lesser apes, monkeys and prosimians.
Primate conservation
69% of the world populations of primate species are threatened by extinction. 43% are classified as critically endangered and some of populations contain a few dozen individuals. All non-human primates are threatened by habitant loss caused by human activities. The loss of habitant’s led to the loss of life. And without the animals to provide crucial activities such as fertilizing the soil thro
Primates of East Africa
There are 38 species and 47 sub species in East Africa. Tanzania holds the largest number of primate species 27, Uganda 23, Kenya 19, and Burundi 13.24% species and 47 %species are endemic to the region.
At least 14 primate species occur in Semuliki National Park in southwestern Uganda. 13 primate species occur in Kibale National Park southwestern Uganda, 11 in Bwindi impenetrable national park.
14 primate species occur in the area comprising the Udzungwa national park and the Kilombero nature reserve south central Tanzania. There are also 11 in Mahale Mountains National Park in western Tanzania and 9 species occur in the Tana River Primate National Reserve southeastern Kenya. There are species that can be found in Niger, Cameroon, South Africa and the Sahara Desert.
The commonly known primate species of East Africa include; Gorillas, Chimpanzees, Colobus Monkeys, Columbus monkeys, Mangabeys, Baboons, Patas monkeys, Guenon monkeys, Macaque monkeys, Galago, Mandrill monkeys, uakaris, lemurs, tarsiers, lorises, gibbons, orangutans and finally the humans.
The primates depending on the species, the adults may live in solitude, in mated pairs or in groups of up to hundreds of members. Some primates including gorilla’s chimpanzees and baboons are primarily terrestrial rather than arboreal but all species have adaptions to climbing trees. Primates in Africa are many but we are mentioning a few of them that are common seen in different destinations in Africa.
The habituation experiences
If an hour isn’t enough for you to do the tracking experience, you have a chance to spend a full day with the primates.it takes a full day from when they get up in the morning to when they are ready to go to rest. As the communities you track are wilder, you get as close to these primates. The habituation enables you to get into the behavior and the challenges of the researchers in getting these apes to get used to the presence of humans without changing their natural behaviors.
Tracking seasons
The best time for tracking is January to February, June to September. There are fewer rains during the dry season which makes the trails more comfortable to navigate and you are sure your itinerary will not be interrupted by rain. The wet seasons usually pull fewer crowds, accommodation is cheaper and it’s easier to access the chimp and gorilla permit. But chimpanzee tracking during the wet season would mean you endure the unfriendly experience of the rains, impassable trails and some difficult photography. Some travellers choose the wet season for the experience and price tag on the safaris
MOUNTAIN GORILLAS
The mountain gorillas are found at high altitudes in montane forests as well as bamboo forests. Most people want to track mountain gorillas and there’s much debate as to which country offers the best mountain gorilla safari. Mountain gorillas only live in the dense vegetation of Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest & Mgahinga National Park and along the dormant volcanic Virunga Mountain range that stretches across Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park, Uganda and Democratic Republic of the Congo. Some primatologists believe that Bwindi gorillas may be a separate subspecies.
What Mountain Gorillas Eat?
Their favorite food appears to be bamboo, but mountain gorillas also eat many other types of plants. Due to their habitat, fruit is rare and makes up a very small portion of their diet. These gorillas also hunt for ants, grubs and snails. They can eat all day long, Mountain gorillas spend about a quarter of their day eating.
Live in families or Gorilla Groups
Mountain gorillas live in different families with each gorilla belonging to a certain family is highly attached to that family. It is very interesting that even if the two or three families meet and mix, every gorilla goes back to her/his own family at the time of departure. A dominant silver back leads a family and the entire family consists of about 10-30 members. All year round, only 8 People are allowed to visit a single gorilla family.
There is an overlap in group territories and the silver back defends his group rather than his territory. Both males and females in the group care for their infants, hugging, carrying and playing with them. When they get older, most males and around 60% of females then leave their birth group to join another troop. This helps prevent inbreeding.
Reproduction
The reproduction in mountain gorillas is quite slow compared to other wild animals. The female mountain gorillas give their first birth at 10 years and the gestation period is 8.5 months after which one baby gorilla is born. It is not very common mountain gorillas giving birth to twins. Anew born baby gorilla is very tiny weighing approximately 1.8kgs but keeps on growing to measure about 180kgs when it becomes mature.
How to differentiate mountain gorilla’s female and male?
When gorillas are young (up to about 8 years), it is difficult to tell males and females apart as they are roughly the same size. The one guaranteed way to determine sex in a younger individual is to look at their genitals. However, at maturity, gorillas are sexually dimorphic, meaning males and females have different physical characteristics making them easily identifiable. Adult male gorillas, or silverbacks, will be close to twice the size of the females, have silver hair on their back, and have large bumps on the top of their heads called sagittal crests.
When is the best time to go for mountain gorilla trekking in Africa?
Mountain Gorilla trekking or safari is a year-round activity in Uganda, Rwanda and the DRC. Peak season is July and August, with “long rains” from March to May and “short rains” in November.
Dry season from June to September, mid-December to early February, Rain Season from March to May and from August to November
In conclusion therefore, mountain gorillas are very interesting animals to interact with. Each member in the family plays a different role, which resemble a real human family.
CHIMPANZEES
They are great apes found across central and West Africa. They are our closest living relatives sharing 98.7 of our genetic blue print. They spend most of their days in the tree tops and can be found in Gabon, Cameroon, Uganda, Rwanda and in protected areas of West Africa.
In Uganda, visitor can find chimpanzee places like Kibale Forest National Park, Kyambura Gorge in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Kalinzu Forest Reserve, Bigodi Wetlands Sanctuary, and Budongo Forest in Murchison Falls National park and at the Ngamba Island in Lake Victoria near Entebbe International airport. In Rwanda, chimps can be found in three main places like Nyungwe National Park (Nyungwe and Cyamudongo forests) and Gishwati Mukura national park. Nyungwe National Park has the highest population of chimpanzees (over 400 individuals).
What Chimps eat?
Chimpanzees are omnivores, meaning they eat both plants and animals. Chimp diet is made up of fruits, figs, Nuts & seeds, Blossom and leaves, Insects, Honey, Meat &eggs, Palm Wine, Medicinal Plants and Milk.
Chimpanzee Families or Groups
Family relationships are vital to chimpanzees. They live in extended family groups of as many as 20-120 individuals. They have a fission-fusion social organization in which they break off into smaller interchangeable groups and periodically come together.
Reproduction
Female chimpanzees can give birth at any time of year, typically to a single infant that clings to its mother’s fur and later rides on her back until the time of weaning between ages three and five. Females reach reproductive age at 13, while males are not considered adults until they are 15.
How to differentiate chimpanzee female and male?
Males and females look much the same, except males are slightly larger than females. Both sexes are roughly the same height, usually measuring around 2 feet 8 inches and have the same black hair all over their bodies, with white beards, pale faces and prominent ears.
How do they communicate?
Since chimps cannot speak, they communicate by using hand gestures, body posture, facial expressions and they make various noises. By combining gestures that are available to them, chimps are able to convey a wide variety of messages to one another.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF MONKEYS
GOLDEN MONKEYS
The golden monkey considered one of the endangered primates. It is an old-world guenon native to central and east Africa. It can be found in Uganda, Rwanda, and the democratic republic of Congo. The golden monkey is a species of Old-World monkey found in the Virunga volcanic mountains of Central Africa, including four national parks. Mgahinga, in south-west Uganda, Volcanoes, in north-west Rwanda, and Virunga and Kahuzi-Biega, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
What they eat?
While it is mostly herbivorous, munching on bamboo leaves and shoots, as well as other types of fruits, flowers, and leaves, it can also be guilty of enjoying the occasional insect and invertebrate. While the Golden monkey has been known to snack on up to 30 species of plants, its favorite food is bamboo.
Golden Monkey live in Groups
The golden monkey is a diurnal primate and a social species. They typically live in groups of between 30 and 80 individuals; sometimes groups can even have up to one hundred monkeys. The higher the elevation a group lives at, the smaller the group tends to be.
Reproduction
Females are in charge of soliciting a mate, though males will mate with multiple partners. Golden monkeys are seasonal breeders, and females give birth once every two years. Gestation lasts five months, and one infant is produced that is born with its eyes open and a coat of hair. Offspring are cared for and nursed by their mothers for up to two years. Males strike out on their own once they become sexually mature, while females generally remain with their natal group for life.
How to differentiate Golden Monkey female and male?
Male golden monkeys are bigger than females. That was a start. “Scars on the ears, broken fingers, hairs on the nose,” could sometimes tell individual males apart she said. Females could be pinpointed by nicks in their ears or sometimes by the length of their nipples. Even by the pigmentation on their nipples.
How do they communicate?
Golden monkeys have a wide range of facial expressions and vocalizations. Males have calls they use during territorial confrontations. Males do not always stay with the group, so sometimes the females take on the task of protecting territories. They have a series of calls to alert others to potential threats, as well as ones that promote unity within the group. Younger monkeys use vocalizations that showcase their submissiveness and to accompany mobbing behavior.
GUENONS
The hoests monkey is also known as the mountain monkey. It can be found in the eastern democratic republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, and western Uganda. It is known just far south their range extends but they are also likely present in the eastern bank of the Congo River. There are isolated populations located in multiple national parks in DRC and Uganda which is east of what is considered its range.it feeds on insects, earthworms, spiders, ants and grasshoppers are also consumed but at a much lower consistency. The females are smaller and lighter than the males.
What they eat?
Guenons come from western and central Africa, were they live in different types of forests. But some spend a greater part of their time on the ground and are found in forested mountain areas. Unlike other tree-dwelling and leaf-eating monkeys, guenons have a more varied diet that includes fruits, seeds, and insects.
Guenon’s Family groups
These monkeys live to about 20 years of age. Guenon species are social and live in family groups of up to 50 individuals. However, the troop may form smaller groups when available food sources become limited. Families may consist of one dominant male, several females, and their offspring. Other males drift in and out of certain territories or may form separate bachelor groups.
Reproduction
Gestation period is about 170 days, with a single baby born at a time. Twins do occur but are less common than single offspring. Guenon babies are generally born lighter in color than their mothers. Their darker, adult coats come in when they are 4 to 6 months old.
How do they look like?
All guenons have colorful fur, face masks, large cheek pouches (used for storing food), rump pads, and long tails which help with balance while maneuvering through trees. Guenon has a white nose, puffy, white cheek pouches, and a long, chestnut-red tail. The skin around the eyes can be greyish-blue in color. Guenons are 12 to 24 inches long, and the tail is 21 to 35 inches in length. Males weigh an average of 7 to 10 pounds, females, 7 to 8 pounds.
How do they communicate?
While guenons make a variety of sounds, they also communicate with several gestures and facial expressions: an open mouth showing sharp teeth, closed eyelids, or a movement of the head or tail can get different messages across to other guenons loud and clear.
GALAGOS
They are also known as bush babies or Nagapies which means night monkeys. They are nocturnal primates living in low forests. There are 18 species of small primates in this family. They live up to 16 years and weigh over hundred pounds to three pounds depending on the species. The name bush babies comes from the animal cries or its appearance. These animals are ace jumpers. They have large eyes that give them a goodnight vision, long tails that help them balance. They are grouped into needle clawed bush babies, lesser bush babies, western dwarf Galagos, greater Galagos or think tailed bush babies, eastern dwarf Galagos, squirrel galagos. Many Galagos species look so similar so it’s difficult to tell by sight alone. They are found in forests throughout the sub Saharan Africa, South Africa.
What they eat?
Galagos are omnivores that eat fruit, insects, and the gum that oozes out of certain tree species. Some of the larger galago species will even hunt small animals, such as frogs and birds.
Family Groups
Family groups of two to seven bush babies will frequently spend the day nestled together in their hollow, but will split up at night to look for food. Lifespan: For lesser bush babies, 3-4 years in the wild and around 10 in captivity. Greater bush babies can live more than 20 years in captivity
Reproduction
Bush babies reproduce twice a year, at the beginning of the rains (November) and the end (February). They are polygynous, and the females raise their young in nests made from leaves. … Bush babies communicate both by calling to each other and by marking their paths with their urine.
How do they look like?
Bush baby also called galago, any of more than 20 species of small attractive arboreal primates native to sub-Saharan Africa. They are gray, brown, or reddish to yellowish brown, with large eyes and ears, long hind legs, soft, woolly fur, and long tails.
How do they communicate?
They use vocal communication by giving out alarm calls, which show fear and other emotions. The calls they use are very important and can often protect the animal from predation. Galago senegalensis nickname of “bush baby” comes from these calls.
BABOONS
They are some of the world’s largest monkeys. There are five species of the baboon including the olive, yellow, chacma, Guinean and sacred scattered across various habitant in Africa. The olive baboon is the most extensively disturbed of the baboon family. The baboon like other world monkeys does not have a tail. They are still able to climb when necessary. They have dog like noses, powerful jaws, sharp canine teeth, and thick fur. Males have a longer mane around the neck called a ruff. They can be found in South Africa, Uganda, Angola, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia and democratic republic of Congo.
What they eat?
Grass makes up a large part of their diet, along with berries, seeds, pods, blossoms, leaves, roots, bark, and sap from a variety of plants. They also eat insects and small quantities of meat, such as fish, shellfish, hares, birds, vervet monkeys, and small antelopes.
Baboon family groups
These groups usually consist of seven or eight males and about twice as many females plus their young. The family unit of females and juveniles forms the core of the troop. Males will leave their natal troops as they mature and move in and out of other troops.
Reproduction
After mating, a baboon female has a gestation period of around six months. Typically, a female will only give birth to one offspring at a time, though twins have been recorded. Baby baboons are called infants.
How do they look like?
Baboons are some of the most identifiable of the monkey world. They have tufts of hair on either side of their faces and large, hairless bottoms that can turn red. These old-world monkeys also do not have prehensile tails like some other monkeys, which means they don’t use their tail like a hand.
How do they communicate?
Baboons have a complex system of communication that includes vocalizations, facial expressions, posturing, and gesturing. These vocalizations, which baboons use to express emotions, include grunts, lip-smacking, screams, and alarm calls.
COLOBUS MONKEYS
They live in forests in Africa and grasslands of central Africa. They mostly live in the trees and eat fruits and leaves. They are unusual for their black and white plus the red Columbus monkey. Coloring. They live in small groups and the groups spends over half a day resting and the remaining hours feeding and moving through the trees. Each group has a well-defined territory of about 40 acres. They can be found in east Africa, west and central Africa.
What they eat?
Colobus monkeys live mostly in the trees and eat leaves and fruit. To help them digest all that foliage, they have a multi-chambered stomach and gut microbes that break down cellulose.
Colobus monkey groups
Colobus monkeys live in small groups usually made up of one male, 3 or 4 females, and related adolescents and infants. Females stay in the group they were born into for the rest of their lives, and infants are carried and taken care of by all the females in the group.
Reproduction
Reproduction takes place throughout the year. After a gestation period lasting about 6 months, the mother usually gives birth to a single infant. Colobus babies are pure white; their black fur doesn’t appear for several weeks. Babies are 7-8 inches long and weigh a little less than a pound. Their eyes are open, and they cling to their mother’s or father’s stomach. Both parents are involved in parenting, and for the first few months the baby is the focus of the whole group’s attention. Beginning at around 20 weeks, a young colobus becomes increasingly independent.
How do they look like?
Colobus monkeys live in small groups usually made up of one male, 3 or 4 females, and related adolescents and infants. Females stay in the group they were born into for the rest of their lives, and infants are carried and taken care of by all the females in the group. Young males leave their family group before they are fully mature, either voluntarily or because the adult male forces them out. Some males go on to lead their own group of females.
How do they communicate?
They communicate with snorts, purrs, caws, screams, and tongue clicking. They sleep together at night, spreading out into adjacent trees close to a food source. At dawn and night-time, the dominant male roars loudly, echoed by the other males in the vicinity.
MANDRILLS
These are found in the dense ancient rainforests of a geographically limited area in western Africa. The endangered drill species comprises two sub species which are found in Nigeria and north of Sanaga River in Cameroon. They can also be found on Bioko Island off the west coast of Africa. They are closely related to the white eyelid Mangabeys. They make a great deal of noise in the forest and calls which allows groups to remain cohesive as they traverse their dense habitant.
What do they eat?
Mandrills are omnivorous. Their highly varied diet in the wild includes fruit, seeds, leaves, fungi, roots, tubers, insects, snails, worms, frogs, lizards, bird eggs and sometimes snakes and small vertebrates.
Mandrill’s family group
Family groups/troops of 10-30 consist of females, juvenile males and a dominant adult male. These groups are often part of larger groups of up to several hundred
Reproduction
The gestation period varied between 152 and 176 days with an inter birth interval of 11-15 months. They also reported that males (30-35 kg at maturity) developed more slowly than females (10-15 kg).
How do they look like?
The mandrill has an olive green or dark grey pelage with yellow and black bands and a white belly. Its hairless face has an elongated muzzle with distinctive characteristics, such as a red stripe down the middle and protruding blue ridges on the sides. It also has red nostrils and lips, a yellow beard and white tufts.
How do they communicate?
Grooming each other, as these mandrills are doing, is a common behavior among primates. Like all monkeys, mandrills communicate through scent marks, vocalizations, and body language. Male mandrills have a scent gland on their chest that they rub on objects as cues to others in their group.
PATAS MONKEYS
These are also known as wadi monkeys. They are found in Africa’s equatorial forests and the Sahara Desert, with a distribution ranging from western Senegal to Kenya and Tanzania. They have a preference for open savannah woodlands but can also be found in a wider range of habitants. The three sub species recognized are the western patas monkey, eastern patas monkey, and the air patas monkey in central northern Niger.
What they eat?
Patas monkeys feed upon a wide range of food. Their diet generally consists of pods, seeds, gall, young leaves, gum and flowers of Acacia trees, supplemented with occasional grasses, berries, seeds, fruits as well as insects, eggs, lizards and young birds.
Patas monkey family groups
The patas monkey lives in multi-female groups of up to 60 individuals (although much larger aggregations have been reported). The group contains just one adult male for most of the year. … Once juvenile males reach sexual maturity (around the age of four years) they leave the group, usually joining all-male groups. The patas monkeys have a relatively long life span as opposed to other smaller species of primates. Their life span can be from 12-20 years old.
Reproduction
The patas monkeys reproduce by mating. The adult male patas monkey reaches their sexual maturity at just four years old, which is younger than other primates. The females do so when they are around three years old, and can have only one baby at a time.
How do they look like?
The patas monkeys are long-limbed, lithe monkeys. They have a reddish, almost rust-colored overcoat, which fades to shades of white and gray as it moves towards their underbelly. They have excess facial hair on their faces, making it look like they have a thick white mustache.
How do they communicate?
One of the major reasons the patas monkeys communicate is to warn those around them of danger. For this, they use a very discreet ‘cough’ alarm. For all other purposes, they usually grunt, call, or hum. This is especially useful during mating seasons.
MACAQUES
Barbary macaques are the only species that live outside Asia. They are found in North African countries of morocco and Algeria. The majority population is found in morocco and a smaller group in Algeria. They live in cedar, oak forests and they prefer mid and high altitude forests. The North African climate is hot during summer and snowy during winter.
What they eat?
Macaques are principally frugivorous (preferring fruit), although their diet also includes seeds, leaves, flowers, and tree bark. Some species, such as the crab-eating macaque, subsist on a diet of invertebrates and occasionally small vertebrates.
Macaque’s family groups
Macaque is gregarious with troops comprising 20-200 individuals. The social groups are matrilineal, whereby a female’s rank is decided by the rank of her mother. Females tend not to leave social group. Macaques can live for over 25 years (maximum recorded is 40 years). Females over 25 years of age experience menopause.
Reproduction
Females give birth approximately every 1 to 2 years, from 3 to 20 years of age. Higher-ranked females reproduce more often, from an earlier age, and have higher infant survival rates. Following a pregnancy of about 5 ½ to 6 months, female long-tailed macaques give birth to a single baby. Weighing less than a pound, the newborn will cling tightly to its mother’s stomach for protection as she travels. These two newcomers are staying close to their mothers for now, so we don’t yet know their genders
How do they look like?
Macaques are robust primates whose arms and legs are of about the same length. Their fur is generally a shade of brown or black, and their muzzles, like those of baboons, are doglike but rounded in profile, with nostrils on the upper surface.
How do they communicate?
Macaques have a variety of facial expressions which they use to communicate with conspecifics, composed of movements of the ears, brow, eyes and mouth from the neutral state. Facial expressions can be used by laboratory staff to infer the attention, intention and internal state of animals.
KIPUNJIS
They are sometimes called the highland mangabey. They became known in 2003 although the local communities had been long familiar with these large charismatic monkeys. They live in montane forests. Two main population are found in exclusively protected areas. One in the highland forests of Ndundulu and the other in rungwe kitilo forest in southwestern Tanzania. Kipunjis prefer the shelter of the forests to avoid the open spaces. Their population becomes fragmented as their habitant degrades.
What they eat?
Kipunjis were observed eating bark, young and mature leaves, ripe and unripe fruits, flowers, pith, seed pods, rhizomes, tubers, shoots and stalks.
Kipunjis Groups
Found in groups estimated at 30 to 36 males and females, with a maximum of two infants. There is no evidence of an animal traveling alone. To date, three groups have been found in the Ndundulu Forest Reserve and 16 groups have been found in the Rungwe-Livingstone forest.
Reproduction
Kipunji breeding intervals are unknown
MANGABEYS
Mangabeys are some of the most rare and endangered monkeys on Earth. These large forest dwellers are found only in Africa. They look somewhat like guenons but are bigger. Local people call some of them “the ones with the thin waist” or “four-eyed monkeys,” because some kinds of mangabeys have bright white eyelids. Mangabeys are divided into different types
Grey-cheeked mangabey are one of about 10 different species of slender, monkeys with long arms and legs found in African tropical forests. Found in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zaire and Rwanda. Mangabeys are fairly large and walk on all fours they also have cheek pouches and deep depressions under the cheekbones.
Cherry crowned mangabey these primates live in West Africa. Cherry Crowned Mangabeys in
tropical and wet rainforests, they are also known as Red capped. Mangabeys due to the cherry red furs on top of their heads.
Sooty mangabey is found on the west coast of Africa from Senegal to Ghana and in every coastal country between, including Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Among others.
What they eat?
Mangabeys are mainly fruit eaters, although they can also eat leaves, nuts, seeds, insects, and spiders. Powerful teeth and jaws help them crack hard nut shells or bite into thick-skinned fruits. Mangabeys also tear bark from trees using their teeth and hands to find bugs and spiders hiding underneath. The biggest meal of the day for mangabeys is breakfast, and they start foraging for food in the early morning, often before the sun comes up. Like many monkeys, mangabeys lick nectar from flowers, moving from tree to tree for this sweet feast, earning them status as pollinators as well as seed dispersers.
Mangabey Family groups
Mangabeys live in groups, called troops, of about 10 to 40 individuals, depending on the species and the availability of food and habitat. There is usually one adult male that acts as leader and the troop’s defender, but sometimes larger troops have two or three adult males that split off with their own family units to forage for food. When there is plenty of food available, mangabey troops often gather together for a while and even exchange troop members.
Reproduction
Mangabeys begin breeding at age 4 to 5 and breed throughout the year with a gestation period of 165 to 175 days.
How do they look like?
Mangabeys can be golden brown, gray, dark brown, or soft black, depending on the species or subspecies, usually with a lighter color on the underbelly. Youngsters are generally darker than the adults. White-collared mangabeys have reddish hair on their head, a “beard” on each cheek, and white hair that wraps around their neck like a collar (hence the name) Black mangabeys have long, grayish brown whiskers that almost cover their ears and a high crest on their head a pointy hairdo. All mangabeys have a tail that is longer than their body, providing balance for them as they scamper through the rain forest canopy.
How do they communicate?
Mangabeys have some interesting ways of communicating with each other. It’s often hard to see one another in the dense forest canopy, so sound is very important. In fact, mangabeys can be very noisy, a special throat sac gives them a booming voice. The sac is larger in the adult male, he can make shrieking alarm calls to alert others to danger, and he barks, twitters, and grunts to let other mangabey groups in the area know where his is, so they don’t accidentally intrude. The adult females often join in with a loud chorus.