It’s not often that a mammal thought extinct, appears once again in the wild. But that’s what happened to the Bouvier’s red colobus (Piliocolobus bouvieri).
The first photograph ever taken of the Bouvier’s red colobus (Piliocolobus bouvieri): an adult female and infant. Image credit: Lieven Devreese.
The Bouvier’s red colobus monkey was discovered by the Italian-born explorer Giacomo Savorgnan di Brazza in the years 1883–1886, and described in 1887 by the French botanist and zoologist Alphonse Trémeau de Rochebrune.
The monkey belongs to the subgenus Piliocolobus of the genus Procolobus (colobus monkeys).
It has been considered a subspecies of a larger colobus taxonomic group in the past, but the most recent treatment lists it as a full species.
The species is thought to occur in the Republic of Congo: in the swamp forests between the lower Likouala and Sangha Rivers, as well as along the Alima River farther to the south.
The last unverified sightings of the monkey occurred in the 1970s.
Then, in February 2015, independent primatologists Lieven Devreese and Gaël Elie Gnondo Gobolo stumbled upon a group of Bouvier’s red colobus in the swamp forests along the Bokiba River in the Ntokou-Pikounda National Park.
They also managed to snap the first-ever photographs of the elusive monkey.
“Our photos are the world’s first and confirm that the species is not extinct,” Devreese said.
“We’re very pleased indeed that Lieven and Gaël were able to achieve their objective of not only confirming that Bouvier’s red colobus still exists, but also managing to get a very clear close-up picture of a mother and infant,” said Fiona Maisels of Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
“Confirmation that Bouvier’s red colobus still thrives in the area reminds us that there remain substantially intact wild places on Earth, and should re-energize all of us to save them before it is too late,” added James Deutsch, Vice President for Conservation Strategy at WCS.
