2. Description The back of the head and back are very red, separated by a black stripe across the shoulders which continues down the arms. The tail has varying shades of red, often graduating to a sandy orange. Adult males and females are almost equal in body size. Notice how few adult males there are in the group. There are usually only from one to four adult males, with many more adult females and young of different ages. To distinguish infants of less than three months look out for their black backs; these change to red by six months
3. Habitat They live in groups of about thirty to fifty individuals, they eat young leaves, flowers, leaf shoots, unripe fruit and seeds. The red colobus is found in tropical and gallery rainforests in all levels of the canopy
4. Causes of extinction The Miss Waldron's red colobus monkey was so sensitive to habitat alteration that scientists could not replicate its diet and had no success with attempts to breed the endangered animal in captivity. Although the scientists of the study blame hunting (for bushmeat) as the main reason for the species decline over the last 20 years of its existence, habitat loss may have pulled the initial trigger.
