Oustalet’s Red Colobus

• Common Name: Oustalet’s Red Colobus
• Taxonomy Classification Year: 1906
• Monkey Size: 45.9 to 73 cm (18.1 to 28.7 in)
• Skin Color(s): Black, dark gray, to reddish-brown
• Habitat: Forest, Rainforest
• Diet: Herbivorous
• Native Countries: Sudan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo

Oustalet’s red colobus^[1] (Piliocolobus oustaleti) is another species of red colobus that lives in various forest types in the southern Central African Republic, southern South Sudan, northern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and northeastern Congo.

• There is more variation between the Oustalet’s Red Colobus coat colors, with a back color ranging from black to dark gray to reddish brown.
• The sides of the body and the arms and legs are light gray. In addition, they have long dark to light brown tails, which they rely on for balance when climbing and leaping through the canopy of trees.
• Oustalet’s red colobus has dark gray to black hands and feet, and their feet are very long, which allows them to jump great distances.
• Oustalet’s red colobus, like all colobus monkeys, has thumbs so small that they are almost non-existent.

• Oustalet’s red colobus are social, living in multiple male/female social groups, usually containing two or more adult males.
• Only males establish dominance hierarchies, expressed through supplantation over food or space.
• Oustaltic red colobus societies are further characterized by fission-fusion, in which socially integrated groups periodically split into temporary subgroups of smaller food units.
• Troops are generally tolerant of one another, but the rate of conflict between groups increases with population density.
• Unlike other Colbines, males have never been seen grooming themselves.