Camera traps installed in December 2024 in a community conservation area in the Niger Delta have captured the first videos of elusive and critically endangered red colobus monkeys. The news comes after years of community efforts to protect their habitat following degradation from oil extraction. So far, camera traps have recorded 15 videos that show these primates feeding on fruits and leaves and exploring the forest canopy, helping researchers gain further insight into the species’ ecology and behavior. Niger Delta red colobus monkeys (Piliocolobus epieni) are endemic to the marshy woodlands of the Niger Delta, Africa’s largest mangrove forest. When the species was first described in 1993, researchers estimated about 3,000 individuals remained in an area of roughly 1,500 square kilometers (579 square miles), about twice the size of New York City. At the time, armed conflict between foreign oil companies and the region’s ethnic minorities prevented further research on the species. It wasn’t until 2013 that Rachel Ashegbofe Ikemeh, founder and director of Nigeria’s only Indigenous grassroots conservation organization, SW/Niger Delta Forest Project (SWNDF), could visit the region to take stock of the red colobus monkeys. She found the forest floor was soaked in knee-deep crude oil, more than 7,000 oil spills that had released at least 13 million barrels (1.5 million tons) of oil since the 1950s, according to the U.N. The recurring oil spills polluted the region’s waterways, forcing fishing-dependent communities to take up logging, which devastated the red colobus’ habitat. In the 1990s, researchers studying the…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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