Black-and-white colobuses (or colobi) are Old World monkeys of the genus Colobus, native to Africa. They are closely related to the brown colobus monkeys of genus Piliocolobus.^[1] The word "colobus" comes from Greek κολοβός kolobós ("maimed"), and is so named because its thumb is a stump.

Colobuses are herbivorous, eating leaves, fruit, flowers, and twigs. Their habitat includes primary and secondary forest, riverine forest, and wooded grasslands; they are found more in higher density logged forests than in other primary forests. Their ruminant-like digestive systems have enabled these leaf-eaters to occupy niches that are inaccessible to other primates.

Colobuses live in territorial groups of approximately nine individuals, based upon a single male with a number of females and their offspring. Newborn colobuses are completely white. There are documented cases of allomothering, which means members of the troop other than the infant's biological mother care for it.

Colobuses are important for seed dispersal through their sloppy eating habits as well as through their digestive system. They are prey for many forest predators and are threatened by hunting for the bushmeat trade, logging, and habitat destruction.

There are five species of this monkey, with at least eight subspecies:^[1]

• Genus Colobus
  • Black colobus, Colobus satanas
    • Gabon black colobus, Colobus satanas anthracinus
    • Bioko black colobus, Colobus satanas satanas
  • Angola colobus, Colobus angolensis
    • Sclater’s Angola colobus, Colobus angolensis angolensis
    • Powell-Cotton’s Angola colobus, Colobus angolensis cottoni
    • Adolf Friedrichs’s Angola colobus, or Ruwenzori black-and-white colobus, Colobus angolensis ruwenzorii
    • Cordier’s Angola colobus, Colobus angolensis cordieri
    • Prigogine's Angola colobus, Colobus angolensis prigoginei
    • Peters's Angola colobus or Tanzanian black-and-white colobus, Colobus angolensis palliatus
  • King colobus, Colobus polykomos
  • Ursine colobus, Colobus vellerosus
  • Mantled guereza or Abyssinian black-and-white colobus, Colobus guereza^[2]

References