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Article: Mates in Peril.(primates in danger of extinction)
- Article from:
- Animals
- Article date:
- December 22, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Only the oldest hunters could recall the red-cheeked monkeys that used to sit high in the rainforest canopy on the border of Ivory Coast and Ghana. But even they could not lead researchers to Miss Waldron's red colobus monkey. This summer, after combing the monkey's swampy forest home for seven years, researchers supported by the Wildlife Conservation Society concluded that, for the first time since the 1700s, a primate species has slipped into oblivion.
The red colobus was first described in 1936 on the basis of eight specimens shot by Willoughby P. Lowe, a British museum collector. He named the monkey for his assistant and traveling companion, Miss F. Waldron. ...