Red colobus (Piliocolobus badius)

Species information

Videos and images

Threats

Although hunting of the red colobus is illegal, it is still very common, with red colobus forming a fair proportion of the bushmeat trade. Compounding this major threat is the loss of huge tracts of forest, particularly along the Ivory Coast, where 85 percent of original forest cover has been lost (8).

Conservation

The larger issues of habitat loss and the bushmeat trade underscore the red colobus’ fight to exist. Both these problems rely on wide-ranging social and political change for their solution, and much is being done to counter them. Miss Waldron’s colobus was declared extinct in 2000, becoming the first primate to go extinct in at least 200 years. However, the scientists who announced its extinction obtained evidence in 2004 of its possible existence, consisting of a tail, a skin and a photograph from hunters, providing new hope. The IUCN continue to classify this subspecies as Critically Endangered, since it has not satisfied the criteria stating that it is beyond reasonable doubt that the last individual has died (8).