Zanzibar red colobus

The Zanzibar red colobus, Piliocolobus kirkii, also called Kirk's red colobus after Sir John Kirk, the British Resident of Zanzibar who first brought it to scientific notice, is endemic to Unguja, the main island of the Zanzibar Archipelago off the coast of Tanzania. The population probably became isolated after sea levels rose at the end of the Pleistocene, and molecular analysis puts its split from its sister species, the Udzungwa red colobus, at about 600,000 years ago. It was adopted as the flagship species for conservation in Zanzibar in the mid-1990s and is classified as endangered, with a population that is still decreasing. It is mainly a folivore, eating young leaves, shoots, seeds, flowers and unripe fruit but not ripe fruit, and in some places it eats charcoal, which is thought to help it digest toxins. Deforestation has cut its habitat and resources, and it is hunted for meat and for pet markets.