Piliocolobus badius waldronae

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Kingdom Animalia

Miss Waldron's Red Colobus. Unknown copyright licence.
Phylum Chordata 
Class Mammalia 
Order Primates
Family Cercopithecidae
Subfamily Colobinae
Genus Piliocolobus
Species Piliocolobus badius
Subspecies Piliocolobus badius waldronae
Authority (Hayman, 1936)
 
English Name Miss Waldron's Red Colobus; Miss Waldron's Bay Colobus
Dutch Name Miss Waldron Rode Franjeaap
French Name Colobe Rouge de Miss Waldron; Colobe Bai de Miss Waldron
German Name Miss Waldrons Roter Stummelaffe
 
Synonyms Colobus badius waldronae, Colobus badius waldroni, Procolobus badius waldronae, Procolobus badius waldroni
 
Taxonomy This primate is treated by some under the genus Procolobus. (Butynski, T. & Members of the Primate Specialist Group 2000) Whether Miss Waldron's red colobus constituted a species or subspecies is an unsettled question among scientist. 
 
Comments Oates et al. (2000) presented evidence that suggested Procolobus badius waldronae was probably extinct because of hunting by humans. The Primate Specialist Group agreed at the time that the available evidence suggested that this taxon is probably extinct, but they argued that it does not fulfil the IUCN criteria for extinction, which is: "there is no reasonable doubt that its last individual has died." Since the announcement by Oates et al. (2000) there have been reported sightings of individuals of this taxon. (Butynski, T. & Members of the Primate Specialist Group 2000) However, it is not yet rediscovered and it is possible that it has been gone meanwhile! This website lists this primate as 'missing (possibly extinct)'.
 
Characteristics

This red-and-black monkey was brightly coloured, typically lived in groups of 20 of more, and called to each other frequently.
 
Lifestyle This monkey typically lived in groups of 20 or more, and called to each other frequently.
 
Range & Habitat This west-African red-and-black monkey was restricted to parts of Ghana and Ivory Coast. The species had a limited distribution between two rivers in both countries and it could only survive in high-canopy forest (rainforest).
 
History & Population The Miss Waldron's red colobus was first described by scientists in 1936, based on eight specimens shot in 1933 by Willoughby P. Lowe, a collector for British museums. It was named for one Miss F. Waldron, who was described in various references as a travelling companion of Mr. Lowe. (Revkin 2000)

The extinction of this monkey was not a surprise to wildlife experts. The last confirmed sighting of a Miss Waldron's red colobus monkey was in 1978 in the rainforest of Ghana. It was listed as endangered in 1988.

A team of Anthropologists for the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York, led by Hunter College anthropologists John Oates failed to find the Miss Waldron's red colobus monkey, when they spent a total of six years surveying 19 forest areas in Ghana and Ivory Coast between 1993 and 1999 (Oates et al 2000). They neither saw nor heard any red colobus monkey. When present these monkeys are relatively easy to find because they are brightly coloured, typically lived in groups of 20 or more, and called to each other frequently.

In 2000, the Miss Waldron's red colobus monkey has been declared extinct. The New York Times, CNN, and others announced its end at 12 September 2000. Scientists have published it officially in the October issue of Conservation Biology in 2000.

The IUCN has listed this subspecies still as Critically Endangered, with the comment: While available evidence suggests that this taxon is probably extinct, it does not fulfil the IUCN criteria for extinction, which is: “there is no reasonable doubt that its last individual has died.”

The extinction Miss Waldron's red colobus monkey is the first documented extinction of an anthropoid (ape or monkey) primate since 1800. According to the study, the disappearance of the Miss Waldron's red colobus monkey may be the first obvious sign that an extinction wave will soon wipe out other large mammals.

The Miss Waldron's red colobus may still exist!

On February 3, 2004, the news came that the Miss Waldron's red colobus may still exist. New evidence of the Miss Waldron's red colobus' existence has rekindled McGraw's hopes of finding the primate, reportedly last seen in 1978. McGraw, an associate professor of anthropology at Ohio State University, has never sighted this monkey in his 10 years of research, but he details the evidence that does exist and his continuing search in an upcoming issue of the "International Journal of Primatology". McGraw has not been to Ivory Coast since the winter of 2002. While the country's civil war ended July 2003, political tensions remain high. McGraw relies on Ivorian hunters he knows to tell him about sightings of Miss Waldron's red colobus, in return for a reward. (Wagner 2004; Environment News Service 2004)

In 2003, McGraw received a photo of what appears to be an adult Miss Waldron's red colobus, but it had been killed (this will be the only known photo of this monkey). In 2002, an Ivorian hunter gave McGraw the skin of a monkey with reddish markings. The skin is now framed and hangs on the wall in McGraw's Columbus office. In 2001, in Ivory Coast, another hunter gave McGraw a black tail from a monkey. Two black-tailed monkey species inhabit the country's southwestern forests. DNA testing proved that the tail did come from a red colobus monkey. But the hunter said he had shot the animal a week after McGraw had left the country in 2000. (Wagner 2004; Environment News Service 2004)

Hunting is illegal in Ivory Coast, but the laws aren't enforced. Bush meat has become something of a delicacy, and many people living in the country's remote areas hunt to eat or sell the meat. Add to that a loss of about 85 percent of the country's original forest cover, and the outlook for Miss Waldron's red colobus doesn't seem very promising. When most of the forest is destroyed and the human population skyrockets and the most remote villages get shotguns, we can't expect to have a good number of these primates around. (Wagner 2004; Environment News Service 2004)
 
Extinction Causes The Miss Waldron's red colobus monkey was so sensitive to habitat alteration that scientists could not replicate its diet and had no success with attempts to breed the endangered animal in captivity. Although the scientists of the study blame hunting (for bushmeat) as the main reason for the species decline over the last 20 years of its existence, habitat loss may have pulled the initial trigger.
 
Conservation Attempts Now the Miss Waldron red colobus may still exist, McGraw and his colleagues are trying to organize a conservation program in Ivory Coast to help save animals that are near extinction. If he does not succeed, the consequences could affect many other species besides Miss Waldron's red colobus.
 
Relatives There are two more subspecies of the Western Red Colobus (Piliocolobus badius), both endangered: the Upper Guinea Red Colobus (Piliocolobus badius badius) and the Temminck's Red Colobus (Piliocolobus badius temminckii). The 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species lists five more subspecies (IUCN 2007): Elliot's Red Colobus (Piliocolobus badius ellioti), Foa Red Colobus (Piliocolobus badius foai), Kisangani Red Colobus (Piliocolobus badius langi), Kahuzi Red Colobus (Piliocolobus badius lulindicus), Lomami Red Colobus (Piliocolobus badius parmentieri). However, recent scientific thought is that these five colobus do not belong to Piliocolobus badius, but should be included as subspecies of a different species, Piliocolobus foai. (ARKive 2007)

New estimates suggest that 10 percent of the world's 608 primate species and subspecies on three continents be critically imperilled. An additional 10 percent might not be in immediate jeopardy but will disappear within a few decades without vigorous protection.
 
Links

CNN.com - African monkey is pronounced extinct.

BBC News - Sci/Tech - Monkey species 'gone for good'.

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: Procolobus badius ssp. waldronae

Forest Conservation News - 3/2/2004 -- Miss Waldron's Red Colobus Monkey May Still Exist.

 

References

(Complete website)

 ARKive 2007. Red colobus - Piliocolobus badius - ARKive. Downloaded on 28 October 2007 from http://www.arkive.org/species/GES/mammals/Piliocolobus_badius.

BBC News 2000. Monkey species 'gone for good'. 26 September 2000. Downloaded from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/science/nature/942745.stm 

Butynski, T. & Members of the Primate Specialist Group 2000. Procolobus badius ssp. waldronae. In: IUCN 2007. 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 28 October 2007.

CNN.com 2000. African monkey is pronounced extinct. 12 September 2000. Downloaded from http://edition.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/09/12/extinct.monkey.ap/index.html. 

Environment News Service 2004. Miss Waldron's Red Colobus Monkey May Still Exist. 2 February 2004. In: Forest Conservation Portal. Downloaded on 28 October 2007 from http://forests.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=28986. 

IUCN 2007. 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 28 October 2007.

McGraw, W. S., and Oates, J. F. (2002). Evidence for a surviving population of Miss Waldron’s Red Colobus. Oryx 36(3): 223.

McGraw, W.S. (2005) Update on the Search for Miss Waldron's Red Colobus Monkey. International Journal of Primatology, 26 (3): 605-619.

McGraw, W. S. and Oates, J. F. 2007. Miss Waldron's Red Colobus, Procolobus badius waldroni (Hayman, 1936). In: Primates in Peril: The World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates 2006–2008, R. A. Mittermeier et al. (compilers), p.10. Unpublished report, IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group (PSG), International Primatological Society (IPS), and Conservation International (CI), Arlington, VA.

Oates, J.F., Abedi-Lartey, M., McGraw, W.S., Struhsaker, T.T. and Whitesides, G.H. 2000. Extinction of a West African red colobus monkey. Conservation Biology 14(5): 1526-1532.

Revkin, A.C. (2000). A West African Monkey Is Extinct, Scientists Say. The New York Times (12 September 2000). Article available online.

Wagner, H. 2004. New Evidence Suggests That Monkey Thought Extinct Still Exists. 2 February 2004. Ohio State University - Research News. Downloaded on 28 October 2007 from http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/redcolo.htm. 

Last updated: 29th December 2007.

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