Primate Profile: The Putty Nosed Monkey

Figure 1: Putty Nosed Monkey

Today’s blog post features a primate, specifically a monkey, that you may have not heard of despite its funny sounding name: the Putty Nosed Monkey (Figure 1).  This primate species, which is also known as the greater spot nosed monkey, white-nosed guenons, or greater white-nosed monkey, is not currently considered at great threat of extinction, but it is nearing threatened status.  This blog post will provide you with more information about this species, including their geographical locations, physical appearance, social organization, and unique communication styles.

 

The Putty Nosed Monkey can be found throughout the forests of western and central Africa, specifically Guinea, Liberian Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Central African Republic, Congo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  They are diurnal (active during the day), arboreal (tree dwelling) primates that very rarely make contact with the ground, preferring to stay in the high tree top canopies where they consume mostly fruit but will supplement their diets with seeds, nuts, insects, leaves, and flowers.  They are a sexually dimorphic species, wherein males are larger than females.  They weigh typically between 9 to 14.5 pounds, and their bodies are on average 17 to 25 inches long, which is often the same length of their tails.  With the exception of their white noses their bodies are covered with grey/black to greenish yellow fur.

 

They exist in one-male groupings, wherein groups of related females live with one or a few outsider males who enter into the group by leaving their own home groups upon reaching maturity.  These primates typically live in troops of anywhere from 12 to 30 members, and they have been observed coexisting with another related primate species, the Diana monkey.  These different primates often cooperatively forage for food and protect against natural predators.

 

The call systems of the Putty Nosed Monkey are unique in several ways.  Wherein other primates typically communicate in limited calls, simply identifying the most immediate stimulant (e.g., food or danger) these primates can actually combine calls to communicate larger messages, similar to a human sentence.  This means that they can communicate if there is food but also danger, and if there is danger what type and level of threat is present.  What is also interesting is that males’ calls are louder and have a wider vocal range than that of females.  This is due to males having an enhanced throat anatomy that allows for stronger and louder calls.  Most recently it was discovered that females use their calls of danger to alert males of the type and level of threats, and males then assess the situation to determine if and how much back up is required to protect the females and associated juveniles.  Males do not use their calls in this same way, instead alerting the group of danger and to come and help.

 

The Putty Nosed Monkey is critical to its environment as they disperse seeds throughout the forests, revitalizing and planting vegetation throughout the forest.  While not at serious risk of extinction yet these primates are dealing with risks to their survival in the forms of deforestation and hunting from farmers who see them as pests.  As previously mentioned primates are integral to their natural environments, so the loss of this species could be disastrous to the western and central African forests they occupy.

 

References

Covert, T. (2019, August). Putty-Nosed Monkey (Cercopithecus nictitans). Retrieved from New England Primate Conservatory: https://www.neprimateconservancy.org/putty-nosed-monkey.html

Mehon, F. G., & Stephan, C. (2021). Female putty-nosed monkeys (Cercopithecus nictitans) vocally recruit males for predator defence. Royal Society.

Neinast, A. (2012). Cercopithecus nictitans. Retrieved from Animal Diversity Web: https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Cercopithecus_nictitans/