Cercocebus galeritus: Tana River Mangabey

Tana River Mangabey - Cercocebus galeritus
( Peters, 1879 )

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Subspecies:	Unknown
Est. World Population:	100-1000

CITES Status:	NOT LISTED
IUCN Status:	Critically Endangered
U.S. ESA Status:	NOT LISTED

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Jumping Ability:	(Horizontal)

Life Span:	in the Wild
Life Span:	in Captivity

Sexual Maturity:	(Females)
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Habitat:

Cercocebus galeritus is restricted to flood-plain forest, riverine gallery forest, and the adjacent woodland and bushland (Wieczkowski and Butynski 2013). Abundance is highly correlated with the spatial characteristics of the forests (Wahungu et al. 2005). It is a semi-terrestrial monkey that can travel up to 1 km through non-forested habitat between forest patches (Wieczkowski 2010). Mean group size is ca 27 individuals (range: 6–62; Wieczkowski and Butynski 2013). Cercocebus galeritus is frugivorous and forages predominantly on the ground and up to 2 m above the ground (Homewood 1978). It feeds on seeds, fruits, stems, leaves, insects and fungi (Wieczkowski and Butynski 2013).

Range:

Cercocebus galeritus is endemic to a stretch of flood-plain forests along the lower Tana River, northern coastal Kenya, from Nkanjonja in the north to Hewani in the south, with an altitudinal range of 20–40 m asl. This species lives in about 27 distinct, small (1–500 ha) forests, some of which are isolated. The area over which this species lives is less than 26 km² (Butynski and Mwangi 1994, 1995; Wieczkowski and Butynski 2013).

Cercocebus galeritus is broadly sympatric with Piliocolobus rufomitratus, Cercopithecus mitis albotorquatus, Paragalago cocos, Otolemur garnettii lasiotis, and narrowly sympatric on forest edge with Papio cynocephalus ibeanus, Chlorocebus pygerythrus hilgerti, and Galago senegalensis braccatus (De Jong and Butynski 2009, 2012; Butynski and De Jong 2019).

Conservation:

Cercocebus galeritus is listed on Appendix I of CITES and on Class A of the African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Given the current poor management of the TRPNR, the continued clearing of forest and settlement of people within the TRPNR, and the low level of conservation activity in the region, the long-term survival of C. galeritus seems bleak. A small number of C. galeritus may still be present in the Tana River Delta. This delta became a Ramsar Site in 2012. Otherwise, the Tana River Delta has no protected area status.

Ndera Community Conservancy, established in 2010 with the help of the Northern Rangeland Trust (www.nrt-kenya.org), aims to conserve 150 km² of habitat along the lower Tana River and to improve the viability of forest patches within and outside the TRPNR (Mbora and Allen 2011, J. King pers. obs. 2016). The Ndera Community Conservancy provides an opportunity for improved conservation of those forests upon which C. galeritus depends.

Stringent habitat protection is required. The Mchelelo Research Station in the TRPNR should be rehabilitated and re-established.