Miss Waldron’s Red Colobus Piliocolobus waldroni
Critically endangered
Ghana, Ivory Coast
Miss Waldron’s Red Colobus was restricted to tropical moist and semi-deciduous forest, and swamp forest, where it typically used the upper canopy (Martin 1991). Two groups studied in Bia National Park in Ghana in the 1970s comprised 34 and 58 individuals, had home ranges of 100–140 ha, and had a diet consisting predominantly of leaves but also fruits, seeds and flowers (Martin 1991).
The Miss Waldron’s Red Colobus is critically endangered on @IUCNredlist in #Ghana #Ivory Coast in #Africa due to logging for #palmoil #cocoa #rubber. You can #Boycott4wildlife the brands causing #deforestation
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The major causes of the decline of the species were hunting and habitat loss (Oates et al. 2000). Both subsistence and commercial hunting (for the bushmeat trade) heavily impacted populations of this species, and improved access to forest interiors via logging roads increased hunting pressure.
The Miss Waldron’s Red Colobus is listed as Critically Endangered as the species is estimated to have undergone a population decline of more than 80% in the 30 years (approximately three generations) up until the last authenticated specimen (killed by a hunter) was found in 2002.
Deforestation through logging, charcoal production, cocoa farming and clearance for agricultural land (including industrial oil palm and rubber tree plantations), occurred over much of the species range in the last 50-60 years.
IUCN Red List
“The disappearance of Miss Waldron’s red colobus is a sign of a wave of extinction of animals that can only live in forests. How many of them will go? At what point will we care? It is going to be a cascade. It is the beginning of a series of extinctions of animals.”
Inza Koné, chair of the African Primatological Society. Mongabay
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Further Information

Oates, J.F., Koné, I., McGraw, S. & Osei, D. 2020. Piliocolobus waldroni (amended version of 2019 assessment). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020: e.T18248A166620835. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-1.RLTS.T18248A166620835.en. Downloaded on 15 February 2021.
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