Kipunji

Distribution

Habitats

The following habitats are found across the Kipunji distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.

Tropical dry forest
Tropical dry forests, in contrast to rainforest, have to survive a long dry season each year, so the predominantly deciduous trees shed their leaves to cope with it. Sunlight can then reach the ground, so the season that's bad for the trees is good for the forest floor.

Behaviours

Discover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.

• Helpless young
• Tree dweller
• Acoustic communication
• Social
• Viviparous

About

The kipunji (Rungwecebus kipunji) is a species of Old World monkey that lives in the highland forests of Tanzania. Also known as the highland mangabey. The kipunji has a unique call, described as a 'honk-bark', which distinguishes it from its close relatives the grey-cheeked mangabey and the black crested mangabey, whose calls are described as 'whoop-gobbles'. Though it was originally thought to be a member of the Lophocebus genus genetic data later placed it as its own separate genus Rungwecebus. The kipunji is the first new monkey genus to be discovered since Allen's Swamp Monkey in 1923.

The kipunji was independently discovered by researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society, the University of Georgia and Conservation International, in December 2003 and July 2004, making it the first new African monkey species discovered since the sun-tailed monkey in 1984. Originally assigned to the genus Lophocebus, genetic and morphological tests showed that it is more closely related to the baboons (genus Papio) than to the other mangabeys in the genus Lophocebus, and that Lophocebus was diphyletic, meaning that species with differing genealogies have been mistakenly lumped together. Scientists have assigned it to a new genus, Rungwecebus, named after Mount Rungwe, where it is found.

Read more at Wikipedia