Species profile
About the black-and-white colobus
Few African primates are as striking as the black-and-white colobus: glossy black with a long U-shaped cape of white hair along the flanks and a full white plume on the tail. It leaps between canopy branches in long arcs with the mantle streaming behind it.
Colobus are leaf specialists, with a complex multi-chambered stomach that ferments foliage other monkeys cannot digest, and they have no thumb — the hand works as a hook for swinging through branches. Arusha National Park's Mount Meru forest is the classic Tanzanian place to watch them.
Life in the wild
Behavior & relationships
Behavior
Diurnal and highly arboreal, rarely descending to the ground. Rests for long periods to digest leaves, and males give a rolling roar at dawn that carries across the forest.
Social life
Small troops of about eight to fifteen with one or two adult males; infants are born pure white and are passed between females of the group.
What makes it remarkable
Special features
No thumb, a ruminant-like stomach for digesting leaves, and pure white newborns that darken over several months.
