Primates
It is easy to underestimate
This unmistakeable black ape is essentially a West African forest species, but its range extends to the eastern shore of
- Chimps and humans are more closely related to each other than to any other living creatures. They share 97% of their genes, and taxonomists place them both in the family Hominidae.
- Chimpanzees live in extended communities of up to 100 individuals, which roam the forest in small subgroups. Males stick with their birth community, but post-adolescent females often emigrate.
- The common notion of chimps as strict vegetarians was rocked when Jane Goodall witnessed them hunting monkeys in Gombe Stream. This is now known to be a regular occurrence in the dry season.
Viewing tip: First contact is usually aural, in the form of the ‘pant-hoot’ call, which consists of several chimps hooting in exited unison, rising to frenzied crescendo before abruptly fading away.
Top sites: Gombe, Mahale and less reliably
Baboons
The most terrestrial of primates, baboons, can be distinguished from other monkeys by their greater bulk (up to 45kg), inverted U-shaped tail and doglike head. Two species are present in
- Baboons live in large, busy, socially complex troops characterised by rigid matriarchal lineages. Males regularly move between troops to in a bid to improve their social ranking.
- When baboons start to see people as a food source, which occasionally happens in the vicinity of lodges and campsites, they can become very aggressive and should be treated with great caution.
- Baboons don’t only look rather doglike – their loud alarm call (often indicating the presence of a leopard or lion) is reminiscent of an angry bark.
Viewing tip: Baboons seldom generate the interest they deserve – anybody who has sat watching a troop for an hour or two will know how rewarding it can be in terms of observing animal interaction.
Top spot: Gombe and Manyara for interaction, but they are present in most other national parks.
Colobus monkeys
The thumbless forest-dwelling colobus monkeys have a rather streamlined appearance, created by their small heads, very long tails and spidery limbs. Strongly arboreal, they seldom venture to the ground and subsist almost entirely on leafy leguminous matter, processed by a ruminant-like digestive system.
- The acrobatic black-and-white colobus has a luxuriant black coat with bright white facial and flank markings and a flowing white tail that streams behind it spectacularly when it leaps between trees. It is typically seen in parties of up to 10 adults, sometimes with a couple of albino-like babies in tow. A resident of highland and mid-altitude forests, it is regularly observed in Arusha, Kilimanjaro and the Serengeti’s western corridor.
- Similar in appearance but with a less flowing tail, the
- The Central African red colobus is a widespread but nondescript rainforest species whose range extends to the eastern shores of
- Kirk’s red colobus, distinguished by its unkempt white crest (recalling a colobine Einstein), is endemic to
- The critically endangered Iringa red colobus is endemic to the
Guenons
The guenons of the genus Cercopithecus are the most diverse of the check-pouch monkeys, a family that also includes baboons and mangabeys (but not colobuses). All members of this family possess an inner cheek pouch, and certain species can holds as much food in this pouch as they can in their stomach. Guenons are a more varied bunch than the colobus monkeys, and occupy a greater range of ecological niches, from dry savannah and montane moorland to evergreen forest.
- The vervet monkey is the world’s most numerous primate, apart from humans. It a familiar sight on African safaris, with its grizzled olive-grey coat offset by a black face, white ruff, pale belly and show-off blue scrotum. An adaptable and gregarious omnivore, it might be seen in any habitat other than desert and forest. It is generally unmistakeable, though in it does occur alongside the more spindly and russet patas monkey in the northern Serengeti.
- The blue (or Sykes’) monkey is the most widespread forest guenon, reflecting its willingness to follow riverine woodland and similar corridors through savannah habitats. It live in small troops, and has a uniform dark blue-grey coat broken by a white throat. Reliable spots include the forested slopes of Ngurdoto Crater (Arusha), and the groundwater forest in Manyara.
- The red-tailed monkey is a western forest species with a coppery tail and a distinctive white nose-blob. Its occurs in Gombe or Mahale on the eastern shores of Lake Tanganyika, where it might be seen singly or in pairs, though larger groups might congregate at seasonal food sources.
Smaller than baboons but larger than guenons, mangabeys are dull arboreal monkeys associated primarily with low-altitude rainforest in central Africa. Tanzania supports one very localised endemic species in the form of the Sanje crested mangabey, which was unknown to science until 1979. Unique to the Udzungwa Mountains, it is thought to number around 2,000 in the wild.
Remarkably, two populations of a previously undescribed grey-brown monkey were discovered in southern Tanzania in 2003. Originally thought to be a type of mangabey, this shaggy and exclusively arboreal monkey is now assigned to a monotypic genus, the first primate discovery of comparable magnitude in 83 years. Known by its local name of kipunji, it is thought to number about 500 in the wild, split between Mount Rungwe and Udzungwa.
Seldom observed due to their nocturnal habits, the bushbabies (or galagos) are more closely related to the lemurs of
