This volume provides comprehensive overviews of the primate’s and each lagomorph species’ biology including palaeontology, physiology, genetics, reproduction and development, ecology, habitat, diet, mortality and age determination. Their economic significance and management, as well as future challenges for research and management are also addressed. Each chapter includes a distribution map, a photograph of the animal and key literature.
Collectively, Cercocebus and Mandrillus include nine species and two subspecies of African monkeys: seven species of Cercocebus and two of Mandrillus, including two drill subspecies. Together, they represent some of the least studied and hence least known of the Afro-Eurasian Primates.
Distributed in the Sundaland region (Thai-Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo, Java and adjacent smaller islands), langurs of the genus Presbytis are one of the most threatened groups of Asian primates. According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, 24 of the 28 taxa (>85%) are threatened with extinction (listed as Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable). One taxon is classified as Near Threatened and one as Data Deficient. Only two Presbytis taxa are considered as Least Concern.
The golden monkey, Cercopithecus mitis kandti, an Endangered subspecies of blue monkey, is found in only two small populations in the central part of the Albertine Rift region in Central/East Africa. Since the 1950s, the habitat of golden monkeys has been lost or degraded in the Virunga massif (Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Uganda), including a reduction of approximately 50% in the Volcanoes National Park (VNP), the Rwandan part of the Virunga massif, and by a staggering 98% in the Gishwati forest located in Rwanda.
This publication contains information about a safari of the author and his experiences during it. This includes various hunts and encounters with animals and people.
Ranging from forests in Senegal to the Zanzibar Archipelago, red colobus monkeys (Piliocolobus spp.) are the most threatened group of African monkeys. According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesTM in 2020, every form of red colobus monkey is threatened with extinction, and 14 of the 18 taxa (>75%) are listed as Critically Endangered or Endangered. Despite their conservation status, only a few populations have been studied in any detail and the general public is largely unaware of these monkeys and their plight.
Gorillas, the largest of the Great Apes, are the second closest relatives to humans after chimpanzees and bonobos and, while once regarded as ferocious beasts, are now considered by those who have studied them to be gentle giants. Because of its limited range, the Mountain Gorilla was the first to become the subject of considerable research study by field biologists and later by wildlife photographers and writers. Only in more recent times have their cousins, the Lowland Gorillas, received such attention, their dense forest homes having kept them much less accessible to the outside world.
Despite the dedicated efforts of many individuals and organizations, the great apes—our closest living relatives—are on the very edge of extinction. This sweeping atlas provides a comprehensive overview of what is currently known about all six species of great apes—chimpanzee, bonobo, Sumatran orangutan, Bornean orangutan, eastern gorilla, and western lowland gorilla.
