Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Mona mon­keys, Cer­co­p­ithe­cus mona, are found in south­west Africa. These coun­tries in­clude Nige­ria, Ghana, Cameroon, Sene­gal, Congo, An­gola, Kasai, Gam­bia, Kwango, and West Uganda. The species was also in­tro­duced to Grenada around the late 1600s.

(Estes 1991, Glenn 1997, Grz­imek 1990, Mac­Don­ald 1985, Meester 1968, Nowak 1999, Zoo At­lanta 1998)

• Biogeographic Regions
• nearctic
  • introduced
• ethiopian
  • native
• neotropical
  • introduced

Habi­tat

Cer­co­p­ithe­cus mona is an ar­bo­real crea­ture and can be found pri­mar­ily in rain­forests, to­ward the mid­dle and top of the trees. This species is also found in man­grove swamps, gallery forests, and wood­lands. Rarely, mona mon­keys are seen in farm­lands. The ter­ri­tory of a typ­i­cal group ranges from 5 to 50 acres.

(Grz­imek 1990, Mac­Don­ald 1985, Nowak 1999, Zoo At­lanta 1998)

• Habitat Regions
• tropical
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• forest
• rainforest

• Wetlands
• swamp

• Other Habitat Features
• agricultural

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Cer­co­p­ithe­cus mona is a small Old World guenon mon­key with a body length of 32 to 53 cm and a long tail of 67 to 90 cm. In­di­vid­u­als are col­or­ful. The dor­sal fur is red-brown to brown-agouti. Theven­tral sur­face and but­tocks are white. The upper half of the face is bluish-gray with a white band on the fore­head. Eye­brows are dark, and the snout is pink­ish. Around the face, the hair is yel­low with a dark stripe run­ning from be­tween the eyes to the ears. The cheeks are grey­ish-yel­low and the lips are white. Other promi­nent fea­tures are the long thick side­burns and white long tufts on the ears. The tail is near black on top with grey un­der­neath. the tail tip is black.

Males are typ­i­cally larger than fe­males, so there is sex­ual di­mor­phism in size. Other than size, how­ever, males and fe­males are sim­i­lar. Males usu­ally weigh around 5 kg, whereas fe­males usu­ally weigh around 4 kg.

Al­binism is known to occur in this species, but it is rare

(Grz­imek 1990, Hill 1966, King­don 1974, Mac­Don­ald 1985, Nowak 1999, Zoo At­lanta 1998)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• male larger

• Range mass

  2 to 6 kg

  4.41 to 13.22 lb

• Range length

  32 to 53 cm

  12.60 to 20.87 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

Not much is known about the mat­ing be­hav­ior of mona mon­keys. How­ever, since their so­cial or­ga­ni­za­tion con­sists of large pre­dom­i­nantly-fe­male groups with very few males, this may sug­gest that males and fe­males form polyg­y­nous bonds.

• Mating System
• polygynous

An in­ter­est­ing fact is that fe­males show no signs of es­trus swelling. In pri­mates, this usu­ally in­di­cates that fe­males com­mu­ni­cate their sex­ual re­cep­tiv­ity through be­hav­iors, and that they mate with only one male.

The ges­ta­tion pe­riod is typ­i­cally be­tween 5 and 6 months. Only one young is usu­ally born at a time, but twins are also known to occur. A fe­male typ­i­cally gives birth every two years. Birth usu­ally takes place at night up in a tree. Wean­ing oc­curs around one year of age. Sex­ual mat­u­ra­tion oc­curs any­where from 2 to 5 years of age.

(Grz­imek 1991, Zoo At­lanta 1998)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• fertilization
• viviparous

• Breeding interval

  A female typically breeds every other year.

• Breeding season

  It is not known whether these primates breed seasonally.

• Range number of offspring

  1 to 2

• Average number of offspring

  1

  AnAge

• Range gestation period

  5 to 6 months

• Average weaning age

  12 months

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  2 to 5 years

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  2 to 5 years

Fe­males nurse and care for their young for about a year. The male role in parental care has not been re­ported.

• Parental Investment
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-independence
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• extended period of juvenile learning

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Longevity of this species has been es­ti­mated at a max­i­mum of around 30 years.

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  22.0 years

  Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

• Average lifespan
  Sex: female
  Status: captivity

  20.5 years

  Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

• Average lifespan
  Status: wild

  30.0 years

  Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

Be­hav­ior

Mona mon­keys live in large packs rang­ing from 5 to 50 in­di­vid­u­als. There is usu­ally only one adult male in a so­cial group, but if the group gets large enough, there may be sev­eral adult males. Large groups such as these tend to be only tem­po­rary arrange­ments which re­sult from sev­eral small groups com­bin­ing to­gether. Large groups pro­vide the ben­e­fit of keep­ing a more at­ten­tive watch for preda­tors and other dan­gers. All-male groups are also known to exist, but are much smaller in size. Male groups usu­ally con­sist of two to four males rang­ing in all age groups.

Mona mon­keys are very so­cial and ac­tive. They are di­ur­nal and ac­tive mostly dur­ing the early morn­ing or late af­ter­noon. They some­times travel in troups when mov­ing across trees quickly. They "fly" across trees by run­ning to the outer end of a tree branch and leap­ing across to an­other tree branch. They se­curely land on all four limbs in a ver­ti­cal pos­ture. How­ever, they are also known to some­times miss their land­ing and fall to the ground or in the water. This does not usu­ally in­jure them se­verely for they have been seen to just climb up the near­est tree to join the troup again.

When they feel like they are in dan­ger, they freeze and re­main still until the dan­ger passes.

(Estes 1991, Glenn 1997, Grz­imek 1990, Hill 1966, King­don 1971, Mac­Don­ald 1985, Nowak 1999)

• Key Behaviors
• arboreal
• diurnal
• motile
• sedentary
• social

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

These mon­keys are known to be loud and noisy, with calls that sound like ex­pres­sive moans. Their alarm calls sound like lit­tle sneezes. The males make boom and hack calls in order to show ter­ri­tory and rank. Al­though it is com­monly thought that their moan is the ori­gin of their name "mona", their com­mon name ac­tu­ally refers to their long tails and the Moor­ish root of the word.

In ad­di­tion to vocal com­mu­ni­ca­tion, the com­plex fa­cial mark­ings of this species in­di­cate that there is also vi­sual com­mu­ni­ca­tion. Fa­cial ex­pres­sions and body pos­tures prob­a­bly fig­ure promi­nently in the com­mu­ni­ca­tion of this di­ur­nal species.

Tac­tile com­mu­ni­ca­tion oc­curs in all pri­mates, as groom­ing, mat­ing, car­ing for young, and ag­gres­sive con­fronta­tions all in­volve phys­i­cal con­tact be­tween in­di­vid­u­als.

Be­cause this species does not show a promi­nent sex­ual swelling to dis­play es­trus, it is likely that in ad­di­tion to be­hav­ioral cues, males can de­tect the pres­ence of sex­ual re­cep­tiv­ity in fe­males through ol­fac­tory in­for­ma­tion.

• Communication Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Mona mon­keys are om­niv­o­rous. Most of their diet con­sists of fruits. In ad­di­tion to eat­ing fruit, they may also feed on sprouts, young leaves, and in­ver­te­brates. Of all species in the genus Cer­co­p­ithe­cus, C. mona eats the great­est pro­por­tion of in­sects and least of leaves.

An in­ter­est­ing as­pect of the feed­ing habits of these an­i­mals is how they store their food in cheek pouches. The ca­pac­ity of these pouches is al­most as large as that of the stom­ach. The pouches ex­tend from the lower teeth to both sides of the neck.

The cusps on the teeth are good for grind­ing food, which suits the di­verse diet of this species.

(Grz­imek 1990, Mac­Don­ald 1978, Nowak 1999, Zoo At­lanta 1998)

• Primary Diet
• omnivore

• Animal Foods
• insects

• Plant Foods
• leaves
• fruit

Pre­da­tion

De­tails on pre­da­tion of this species are not wide­spread in the lit­er­a­ture. How­ever, these mon­keys ap­par­ently fall prey to the same preda­tors that com­pli­cate the lives of other for­est pri­mates in Africa. It is likely that leop­ards, golden cats, pythons, and rap­tors (like crested ea­gles) all pre­sent threats to mona mon­keys.

• Known Predators

  • leopards
  • golden cats
  • crested eagles
  • pythons

Ecosys­tem Roles

To the ex­tent that these mon­keys serve as food for other species, they may have an im­pact on preda­tor pop­u­la­tions. Be­cause of their fru­givory and their cheek pouches, mona mon­keys are un­doubt­edly im­por­tant in seed dis­per­sal.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Al­though not of great eco­nomic im­por­tance in mod­ern days, these mon­keys were his­tor­i­cally traded as pets. Dur­ing the peak of the slave trade pe­riod (late 1600s to 1700s), mona mon­keys were in­tro­duced to Grenada in Cen­tral Amer­ica. At that time, in­tro­duc­ing small African an­i­mals as pets was com­mon. How­ever, be­cause only a few were trans­ported at a time, the num­ber of an­i­mals in­volved was small. Some of these an­i­mals es­caped and founded a wild pop­u­la­tion.

(Ben­son & Glenn, 1998)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Per­haps be­cause their habi­tat is dis­ap­pear­ing, mona mon­keys are some­times know to raid crops.

(King­don, 1974)

• Negative Impacts
• crop pest

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Over­all, this species is still con­sid­ered to be abun­dant. It is not listed by ei­ther IUCN or U.S. ESA.

This species has been bred in cap­tiv­ity, where the max­i­mum life span is 26 years. The have been known to hy­bridize suc­cess­fully with other species in cap­tiv­ity. These in­clude Cer­co­p­ithe­cus ne­glec­tus, Cer­co­p­ithe­cus mitis, and Cer­co­p­ithe­cus atheiops.

(Grz­imek 1990, King­don 1974, Nowak 1999, Zoo At­lanta 1989)

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  Appendix II

Other Com­ments

Mona mon­keys are also some­times re­ferred to as Dent's Mon­keys. The max­i­mum lifes­pan of a mona mon­key in the wild is around 30 years. Their lifes­pan is af­fected by vari­ables such as preda­tors and dis­ease. Their preda­tors in­clude the crested eagle, python, leop­ard, and golden cat. With re­spect to dis­eases, they are nat­u­rally im­mune to yel­low fever and the Sem­liki For­est virus.

In con­trast to their con­di­tion in their na­tive re­gion in Africa, mona mon­keys that were in­tro­duced to Grenada have lower mus­cle tone and poorer health yet higher weight mea­sure­ments rel­a­tive to the wild African mon­keys. This con­trast could be due to the fact that the mona mon­keys of Grenada have no preda­tors. Nev­er­the­less, It is cur­rently be­lieved that wild mona mon­keys today no longer sur­vive in Grenada.

(Bensen & Glenn 1998, Grz­imek 1990, King­don 1974, Nowak 1999)

Con­trib­u­tors

Nancy Shef­ferly (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

Sonia Liu (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, Phil Myers (ed­i­tor), Mu­seum of Zo­ol­ogy, Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

Ben­son, K., M. Glenn. April, 1998. Cap­ture Tech­niques and Mor­pho­log­i­cal Mea­sure­ments of the Mona Mon­key, *Cer­co­p­ithe­cus mona*, on the Is­land of Grenada, West In­dies. Amer­i­can Jour­nal of Phys­i­cal An­thro­pol­ogy, 105: 481-491.

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

Glenn, M. 1997. Group Size and Group Com­po­si­tion of the Mona Mon­key (*Cer­co­p­ithe­cus mona*) on the Is­land of Grenada, West In­dies. Amer­i­can Jour­nal of Pri­ma­tol­ogy, 43: 167-173.

Grz­imek, B. 1990. Grz­imek's En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Mam­mals, vol 4. New York: Mc­Graw-Hill Pub­lish­ing Com­pany.

Hill, W. 1966. Pri­mates: Com­par­a­tive Anatomy & Tax­on­omy. Ed­in­burgh: Ed­in­burgh Uni­ver­sity Press.

King­don, J. 1974. East African Mam­mals: An Atlas of Evo­lu­tion in Africa. Lon­don: Aca­d­e­mic Press.

Mac­Don­ald, D. 1985. The En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Mam­mals. New York: Facts on File Pub­li­ca­tions.

Meester, J. 1968. Pre­lim­i­nary Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion Man­ual for African Mam­mals. Wash­ing­ton: Smith­son­ian In­sti­tu­tion.

Nowak, R. 1999. Walker's Mam­mals of the World, Sixth Edi­tion. Bal­ti­more: Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press.

Zoo At­lanta, 1998. "Mona Guenon Fact Page" (On-line). Ac­cessed Oc­to­ber 13, 1999 at http://​www.​zooatlanta.​org/​edu_​act_​facts_​guenon.​html.