A moment with the Colobus

Mother with Infant Colobus- Pictures by Danny Gill conservation intern

I didn’t know anything about Angola Black and White Colobus monkeys before arriving to Kenya. But my new home on the very Southern tip of Kenya's coastal forest holds the second largest population in the country. As a GVI volunteer it’s my job to gather data on this intriguing monkey.

You will hear a Colobus before you see it. Crashing through the forest, swinging through branches with ease but these are no elegant monkeys. Sometimes they make “suicidal-jumps”, which involves giant leaps from tree to tree. Most of the time these nail biting jumps are successful, but sometimes they miss, plummeting to the ground, only to recover a minute later, shaking themselves off before a mad dash to return to their troop.

Colobus are much more comfortable in the trees

This is a very unique looking monkey almost like an old man with a beard and black and white coat. A troop of Colobus is made up of one dominating male, females and individuals of different ages. The young infants who start off completely white, cling to the female colobus, only gaining enough bravery after a year to leave their mothers side. Their main food source is leaves and flowers and they spend early mornings and late afternoons feeding, lounging in the middle of the day when it’s too hot. There are many wonderful and weird creatures on this earth but the Angola Black and White Colobus monkey is unquestionably in my top ten.  

Grooming time

Marie-Combination Volunteer (from Sweden)

A moment with the Colobus