Mona monkey

The mona monkey, Cercopithecus mona, is a guenon of the forests of western Africa, ranging from eastern Ghana through Togo, Benin and Nigeria to western Cameroon. It lives in troops that often number about a dozen animals, usually led by a single mature male, and forages through the canopy mainly for fruit, with flowers, seeds, insects and other invertebrates making up the rest of its diet. Adults have a brown crown, a pale brow band, a grey bare-skin mask and pale cheek fur, with deep brown upper parts and creamy underparts. A pair of white patches at the base of the tail resembles the callosities of baboons. The species adapts to degraded forest, gallery forest and Niger delta mangroves, and has been introduced to Grenada and Sao Tome and Principe. It is hunted for food and loses habitat, and is assessed as near threatened.