Facts About Sooty mangabey
The sooty mangabey is an Old World monkey found in forests from Senegal in a margin along the coast down to Ghana. While overall rated as Near Threatened, the eastern race lunulatus, also known as the white-crowned, white-naped, or white-collared mangabey, is considered Endangered by the IUCN. The white-collared mangabey was declared a separate species by the IUCN in 2016, but it retains the endangered conservation status.
Habitat and ecology
The sooty mangabey is native to tropical West Africa, being found in Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast. It lives in both old growth and secondary forests as well as in flooded, dry, swamp, mangrove, and gallery forests. The primate is arboreal and diurnal. They are omnivores whose diet includes primarily fruits and seeds, sometimes feeding on small animals. They live in social groups of four to twelve individuals, but occasionally groups as large as 95 individuals have been recorded.
Taxonomy
There are two distinctive subspecies of this mangabey, and it is possible they should be considered separate species. Both were formerly considered subspecies of a widespread Cercocebus torquatus.
- Cercocebus atys atys (west of the Sassandra River)
- White-collared (or White-crowned) mangabey, Cercocebus atys lunulatus (east of the Sassandra River).
Disease
Sooty mangabeys are naturally infected with a strain of Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV), known as SIVsmm. Due to extensive human-mangabey contact in sub-Saharan Africa, SIVsmm has jumped from this species into humans on many occasions, resulting in HIV-2 virus. The HIV-1 strain by contrast came from the common chimpanzee strain of SIV.
The sooty mangabey can also contract leprosy, as can humans, the nine-banded armadillo, the common chimpanzee, and the crab-eating macaque.
Status
The sooty mangabey is believed to be decreasing in numbers as its forest habitat is degraded, with trees being felled for firewood and timber, and it is hunted for food in some parts of its range. It is more terrestrial than some of its relatives and sometimes raids farms, which brings it into conflict with humans. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as vulnerable.
Burkina Faso