About Piliocolobus badius (Kerr, 1792)
Piliocolobus badius, commonly called the western red colobus, reaches a head-and-body length of 450 to 670 mm (18 to 26 in), a tail length of 520 to 800 mm (20 to 31 in), and a body weight between 5 and 11 kg (11 and 24 lb). This primate has a red or chestnut-brown head and limbs, and black, slatey-grey, or dark brown upper parts. It lacks long hair fringes and tail hair tufts. When compared to Colobus genus monkeys, the western red colobus has V-shaped nostrils, long digits, and a short big toe. This red colobus is endemic to tropical West Africa. It has multiple fragmentary populations in Sierra Leone, and continuous populations in Liberia, Guinea, and western Ivory Coast. The exact boundary where the ranges of P. b. badius and P. b. temminckii meet is unclear, but P. b. badius populations are separated from P. b. waldronae by the Bandama River in Ivory Coast. The western red colobus is an arboreal species, most commonly found in primary rainforest, and also lives in secondary forest and gallery forest. The red colobus lives in social colonies that contain between 12 and 80 individuals. Colonies usually have multiple adult males, and up to three times as many adult females as males. A social hierarchy exists within colonies that regulates access to food, space, and grooming.
