Book contents
- The Colobines
- Cambridge Studies in Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology
- The Colobines
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- 1 General Introduction
- 2 Taxonomic Classification of Colobine Monkeys
- 3 The Colobine Fossil Record
- 4 Molecular Phylogeny and Phylogeography of Colobines
- 5 Relationships between the Diet and Dentition of Asian Leaf Monkeys
- 6 Morphology and Physiology of Colobine Digestive Tracts
- 7 Colobine Gut Microbiota
- 8 Colobine Nutritional Ecology
- 9 Red Colobus Natural History
- 10 Natural History of Black-and-White Colobus Monkeys
- 11 Behaviour and Ecology of Olive Colobus
- 12 Ecology and Behaviour of Odd-Nosed Colobines
- 13 Ecology of Semnopithecus
- 14 Ecology of Sympatric and Allopatric Presbytis and Trachypithecus Langurs in Sundaland
- 15 Ecology of Trachypithecus spp. in the Indo-Burmese Region
- 16 Socioecology of Asian Colobines
- 17 Socioecology of African Colobines
- 18 Causes and Consequences of the Formation of Multilevel Societies in Colobines
- 19 Colobine Population Ecology
- 20 State of Asian Colobines and Their Conservation Needs
- 21 Conservation of Africa’s Colobine Monkeys (Cercopithecidae, Colobinae) with Taxonomic and Biogeographic Considerations
- 22 Directions for Future Research
- References
- Index
11 - Behaviour and Ecology of Olive Colobus
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 February 2022
- The Colobines
- Cambridge Studies in Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology
- The Colobines
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- 1 General Introduction
- 2 Taxonomic Classification of Colobine Monkeys
- 3 The Colobine Fossil Record
- 4 Molecular Phylogeny and Phylogeography of Colobines
- 5 Relationships between the Diet and Dentition of Asian Leaf Monkeys
- 6 Morphology and Physiology of Colobine Digestive Tracts
- 7 Colobine Gut Microbiota
- 8 Colobine Nutritional Ecology
- 9 Red Colobus Natural History
- 10 Natural History of Black-and-White Colobus Monkeys
- 11 Behaviour and Ecology of Olive Colobus
- 12 Ecology and Behaviour of Odd-Nosed Colobines
- 13 Ecology of Semnopithecus
- 14 Ecology of Sympatric and Allopatric Presbytis and Trachypithecus Langurs in Sundaland
- 15 Ecology of Trachypithecus spp. in the Indo-Burmese Region
- 16 Socioecology of Asian Colobines
- 17 Socioecology of African Colobines
- 18 Causes and Consequences of the Formation of Multilevel Societies in Colobines
- 19 Colobine Population Ecology
- 20 State of Asian Colobines and Their Conservation Needs
- 21 Conservation of Africa’s Colobine Monkeys (Cercopithecidae, Colobinae) with Taxonomic and Biogeographic Considerations
- 22 Directions for Future Research
- References
- Index
Summary
This chapter broadly covers what we know of the natural history of the olive colobus monkey, the only monotypic African colobine that shows a suite of unique traits. Distributed in the upper Guinea forests of West Africa, these cryptic, drab-coloured monkeys tend to form long-term and often permanent polyspecific associations with guenon groups as part of their predation avoidance strategy. They carry their infants in their mouths and show several morphological and behavioural traits (e.g., sexual swellings, canine dimorphism, extra-group copulations) that indicate that sexual selection has been important in their evolutionary history. They are selective feeders that favour young leaves and often eat lianas. No long-term studies are currently being conducted on olive colobus monkeys and there is much remaining to be discovered about their behaviour and ecology.
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- The ColobinesNatural History, Behaviour and Ecological Diversity, pp. 146 - 155Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022