Camera traps installed in December 2024 in a community conservation area in the Niger Delta have captured the first videos of elusive and critically endangered red colobus monkeys. The news comes after years of community efforts to protect their habitat following degradation from oil extraction.
So far, camera traps have recorded 15 videos that show these primates feeding on fruits and leaves and exploring the forest canopy, helping researchers gain further insight into the species’ ecology and behavior.
Niger Delta red colobus monkeys (Piliocolobus epieni) are endemic to the marshy woodlands of the Niger Delta, Africa’s largest mangrove forest. When the species was first described in the 1990s, researchers estimated about 10,000 individuals remained in an area of roughly 1,500 square kilometers (579 square miles), about twice the size of New York City.
At the time, armed conflict between foreign oil companies and the region’s ethnic minorities prevented further research on the species. It wasn’t until 2013 that Rachel Ashegbofe Ikemeh, founder and director of Nigeria’s only Indigenous grassroots conservation organization, SW/Niger Delta Forest Project (SWNDF), could visit the region to take stock of the red colobus monkeys.
She found the forest floor was soaked in knee-deep crude oil, more than 7,000 oil spills that had released at least 13 million barrels (1.5 million tons) of oil since the 1950s, according to the U.N. The recurring oil spills polluted the region’s waterways, forcing fishing-dependent communities to take up logging, which devastated the red colobus’ habitat.
In the 1990s, researchers studying the red colobus recorded the species in 16 community forests of the Niger Delta. By 2013, they were in only four. “The species had become extinct in most of the community forests we visited,” Ikemeh said.
After years of working with the local communities, SWDNF set up a community-managed conservation area in 2021. By then, the primates were on the brink of extinction, with only one viable population with fewer than 200 monkeys.
“We snatched it out of extinction in the nick of time,” Ikemeh said, adding that the population has since doubled, although a rigorous population survey is pending.
“It is indeed miraculous that this species has survived up until now, and it is largely through the efforts of Rachel and her team and the communities with which she works,” said Russell Mittermeier, chair of the IUCN Primate Specialist Group.
Ebitimi Smart, youth president from the Indigenous Apoi community, said Ikemeh’s organization has made a tangible difference in conservation and his people’s lives by providing education and alternative incomes. “The community is so happy that these people came to us,” he said.
However, Ikemeh credits the community for the conservation success and their resolve to protect the forest. “I think they are the superheroes in this story.”
Banner image: Image courtesy of SWNDF.
Credits
