L’hoest’s Monkey (Cercopithecus lhoesti)

MORPHOLOGY:
This species has cheek pouches to carry food in while it forages. The average body mass for an adult male is around 7.5 kilograms, and for a female it is around 4.3 kilograms. The foot of L’hoest’s monkey is quite narrow, more adapted for running on the ground.

RANGE:
L’hoest’s monkey is found in the countries of Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zaire. This species prefers the montane, primary lowland, secondary, riverine, and dryer woodland forests (Cords, 1987).

ECOLOGY:
L’hoest’s monkey consumes fruits, leaves, seeds, flowers, and arthropods. Group sizes for this species range from 9 to 25 individuals. This species is both arboreal and terrestrial and is also diurnal.

LOCOMOTION:
L’hoest’s monkey moves through the forest quadrupedally (Fleagle, 1988).

SOCIAL BEHAVIOR:
L’hoest’s monkey has a unimale social group that occasionally has extra-group males. Male competition is high when there are extra-group males. Only one male gets to copulate with all of the females.

VOCAL COMMUNICATION:

OLFACTORY COMMUNICATION:

VISUAL COMMUNICATION:
staring: This display by L’hoest’s monkey is used as a threat display (Estes, 1991). The eyes are fixed on the stimulus and the eyebrows are raised and the scalp is retracted, the facial skin is also stretched by moving the ears back (Estes, 1991). Underneath the eye lids the color is different which contrasts sharply with the surrounding facial color (Estes, 1991)

staring with open mouth: This is the stare accompanied by the mouth being open but the teeth are covered (Estes, 1991). This is a threat expression and often occurs with head-bobbing (Estes, 1991).

head-bobbing: This is used as a threat display by the L’hoest’s monkey and head bobs up and down (Estes, 1991). This often occurs with staring with open mouth (Estes, 1991).

TACTILE COMMUNICATION:

REPRODUCTION:
L’hoest’s monkey gives birth to a single offspring.

presenting: This behavior is preformed by the female to elicit copulation from the male; this pattern tells the male that she is ready for copulation (Estes, 1991).

REFERENCES:
Burton, Frances. 1995. The Multimedia Guide to the Non-human Primates. Prentice-Hall Canada Inc.

Cords, M. 1987. Forest Guenons and Patas Monkeys: Male-Male Competition in One-male Groups. In Primate Societies, eds. B.B. Smuts, D.L. Cheney, R.M. Seyfarth, R.W. Wrangham, and T.T. Struhsaker. University of Chicago Press.

Estes, R.D. 1991. The Behavior Guide to African Mammals. University of California Press.

Fleagle, John G. 1988. Primate Adaptation and Evolution. Academic Press.

Last Updated: October 6, 2003.
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