De Brazza’s Monkey
Cercopithicus neglectus

De Brazza’s monkeys spend their days foraging for fruit and socializing with others in their family group. Their digestive tracts, which are a lot like ours, make it hard for them to find nourishment in tough forest materials such as leaves and bark.

What They Eat
De Brazza’s monkeys eat ripe fruit and seeds from trees, and occasionally other plant parts and small animals.

Where They Live
De Brazza’s monkeys live in small groups in forests through Africa. They forage in the forest understory and floor, using long limbs and tails to move from tree to tree.

What They Do
De Brazza’s monkeys are sociable among themselves but hostile towards other primates. The one exception is colobus monkeys, with which they coexist peacefully, perhaps because they don’t typically compete for food. When threatened, they successfully hide by curling into a ball with their white parts hidden.

How They’re Doing
In some localized areas De Brazza’s monkeys are disappearing as people destroy forest to make wood or farmland. On a broader scale, because they are so well camouflaged we don’t know whether populations are declining, stable, or on the increase.

De Brazza’s Monkey
Cercopithicus neglectus

De Brazza’s monkeys chase off other monkeys that enter their territory—except for colobus monkeys. The two species’ digestive tracts are different, so they eat different foods and can coexist peacefully.

De Brazza’s monkeys can swim.

De Brazza’s monkeys are named for Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, a famous Frenchman who explored Africa in the late 1800s.

When threatened, De Brazza’s monkeys curl up into a ball with only their camouflaged backs exposed. They stay very still until the danger has passed—up to 8 hours!

 

De Brazza’s Monkey
Cercopithicus neglectus

Support African forests and the De Brazza's monkey.

De Brazza’s monkeys do not appear to be in danger. However, in some places development is taking over their habitat, and occasionally hunters or farmers protecting their crops kill them.

The Zoo has provided funds to support wildlife patrolling and monitoring on Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea.
Bioko Island is a small island (2000 km2) twenty miles off the coast of Cameroon in West Africa.  It is home to the capital city of Equatorial Guinea, 150,000 people, and some of the most endangered animals on Earth.  Threatened primates include: Pennant’s red colobus monkey (Procolobus pennanti pennanti: designated by IUCN’s Primate Specialist Group as one of the 25 most endangered primates in the world), the Bioko black colobus monkey (Colobus satanus satanus), Stampfli’s greater spot-nosed guenon (Cercopithecus nictitans stampflii), Preuss’ guenon (Cercopithecus preussi), Bioko red-eared guenon (Cercopithecus erythrotis erythrotis), crowned guenon (Cercopithecus pogonias pogonias), and the drill (Mandrillus leucophaeus).  The island’s southern beaches are also nesting sites for four species of endangered sea turtles: the leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea), the hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricate), the Atlantic green (Chelonia mydas), and the olive ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea).

In the 1980’s, the capital city of Malabo at the northern end of Bioko became home to a commercial bushmeat market, selling monkeys, duikers, sea turtles, monitor lizards, and other large animals.  Since then, wildlife has largely disappeared from the northern half of the island.  At the island’s southern end, the Gran Caldera - a hollowed out volcanic crater, shields many animals from hunters with its steep gorges.  As bushmeat supply decreases, however, and prices increase, hunters are making riskier and longer treks into the southern forests.

This project, run by the Bioko Biodiversity Protection Program, coordinates seven wildlife patrolling and monitoring teams in an effort to protect the island’s remaining wildlife and keep commercial bushmeat hunters out of protected areas. In 2008, the Minnesota Zoo provided funding through the Ulysses S. Seal Conservation Grant Program to help keep these patrols running. 

De Brazza’s Monkey
Cercopithicus neglectus

Range and Habitat
De Brazza’s monkeys are found across the wide middle of Africa. They thrive best in wet, wooded swamps. However, colonies also occur in drier mountainside forests along rivers and streams.

Description
Long-tailed and thickly furred, De Brazza’s monkeys have a dull olive-colored body with a white rump and a white stripe down each leg. Their arms, legs, and tail are black, and their faces have an orange forehead, white muzzle, and white beard. Males are much larger than females and have a blue scrotum.

Habits and Adaptations
De Brazza’s monkeys live in small groups with a single male and one or more females and young. During the daytime, they move through the forest understory using all four limbs to grasp branches and their big tail to help them keep their balance. They are generally quiet, but occasionally make croaks or alarm growls. The male sometimes hums as he keeps his family in a group, and makes a booming call to mark his territory.

Eat and Be Eaten
Fruit and seeds are the main foods of De Brazza’s monkeys, though they also eat flowers, fungi, leaves, insects, and spiders. Animals that eat De Brazza’s monkeys include leopards, crested eagles, pythons, and people.

Life History
A De Brazza’s female gives birth to a single infant about five to six months after mating. The young monkey stays with its mother, clinging to her fur and drinking milk until about a year old. As it grows, it will start nibbling at fruit and other food at about two months of age. A male will leave the family group when it matures at 4 years of age. A female will mature at about age 3 and remain with her family of origin. De Brazza’s may live up to 22 years in the wild and 30 years in zoos.

Conservation Notes
There is no indication that De Brazza’s monkey populations are unstable or threatened. Humans have destroyed their habitat in some places, and occasionally hunt them for food or as agricultural pests. In other areas areas, they are protected.