Discovery of red colobus monkeys (Procolobus badius) in the Niger Delta with the description of a new and geographically isolated subspecies

A distinctive and geographically isolated population of red colobus monkey Procolobus badius has been discovered in the Niger Delta within what was pr eviously believed to be a discontinuity in the distribution of the species some 1200 km across. This Delta red colobus represents a new subspecies, P. 6. epieni, most closely resembling the taxon on Bioko (P. b. pennantii) in such features as black hands and feet, and lack of orange-brown tones on h ead and neck, but differing in having whitish arms and hair whorls above th e ears. It is less similar to subspecies on the mainland to the west or eas t (P, b. waldroni in Ghana and P. b. preussi in Cameroon, respectively), im plying a complex zoogeographical history for the species. The Delta red col obus occupies an exceptionally low lying habitat of marsh forest, and its r ange lies within an area that had been independently identified as a centre of primate endemism, so it may have survived climatic vicissitudes of the Pleistocene in a Delta refuge. As it is confined to an area of about 1500 k m(2), it is now vulnerable to increasing human pressures.