Bushmeat is meat from wildlife species that are hunted for human consumption, most often referring to the meat of game in Africa. Bushmeat represents a primary source of animal protein and a cash-earning commodity for inhabitants of humid tropical forest regions in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Bushmeat is an important food resource for poor people, particularly in rural areas.
Old World monkey is the common English name for a family of primates known taxonomically as the Cercopithecidae. Twenty-four genera and 138 species are recognized, making it the largest primate family. Old World monkey genera include baboons, red colobus and macaques. Common names for other Old World monkeys include the talapoin, guenon, colobus, douc, vervet, gelada, mangabey, langur, mandrill, surili (Presbytis), patas, and proboscis monkey. Phylogenetically, they are more closely related to apes than to New World monkeys. They diverged from a common ancestor of New World monkeys around 45 to 55 million years ago.
Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) is a species of retrovirus that cause persistent infections in at least 45 species of African non-human primates. Based on analysis of strains found in four species of monkeys from Bioko Island, which was isolated from the mainland by rising sea levels about 11,000 years ago, it has been concluded that SIV has been present in monkeys and apes for at least 32,000 years, and probably much longer.
The mandrill is a large Old World monkey native to west-central Africa. It is one of the most colorful mammals in the world, with red and blue skin on its face and posterior. The species is sexually dimorphic, as males have a larger body, longer canine teeth and brighter coloring. Its closest living relative is the drill with which it shares the genus Mandrillus. Both species were traditionally thought to be baboons, but further evidence has shown that they are more closely related to white-eyelid mangabeys.
Chlorocebus is a genus of medium-sized primates from the family of Old World monkeys. Six species are currently recognized, although some people classify them all as a single species with numerous subspecies. Either way, they make up the entirety of the genus Chlorocebus.
The golden-bellied mangabey is a social Old World monkey found in swampy, humid forests south of the Congo River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was previously considered a subspecies of the agile mangabey . Little is published about the species and its behaviour has only been studied in captivity.
The grey-cheeked mangabey, also known as the white-cheeked mangabey, is an Old World monkey found in the forests of Central Africa. It ranges from Cameroon down to Gabon. The grey-cheeked mangabey is a dark monkey, looking in shape overall like a small, hairy baboon. Its thick brown fur is almost black in its forest home, with a slightly rufus/golden mane around the neck. The sexes are similar, with the males slightly larger than the females.
The sooty mangabey is an Old World monkey found in forests from Senegal in a margin along the coast down to the Ivory Coast.
AIDS is caused by a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which originated in non-human primates in Central and West Africa. While various sub-groups of the virus acquired human infectivity at different times, the present pandemic had its origins in the emergence of one specific strain – HIV-1 subgroup M – in Léopoldville in the Belgian Congo in the 1920s.
The white-eyelid mangabeys are African Old World monkeys belonging to the genus Cercocebus. They are characterized by their bare upper eyelids, which are lighter than their facial skin colouring, and the uniformly coloured hairs of the fur. The other two genera of mangabeys, Lophocebus and Rungwecebus, were once thought to be very closely related to Cercocebus, so much so that all the species were placed in one genus. However, it is now understood that Lophocebus and Rungwecebus species are more closely related to the baboons in genus Papio, while the Cercocebus species are more closely related to the mandrill.
The western gorilla is a great ape found in Africa, one of two species of the hominid genus Gorilla. Large and robust with males weighing around 168 kilograms (370 lb), the hair is significantly lighter in color than the eastern gorilla, Gorilla beringei, and geographically isolated from them in a region at the midwest of the African continent. Two subspecies are recognised, Gorilla gorilla diehli is limited to a smaller range in the north at the border of Cameroon and Nigeria, both are listed Critically Endangered.
The Tana River mangabey is a highly endangered species of primate in the family Cercopithecidae. Some authorities have included the taxa agilis and sanjei as subspecies of this species, while others award these full species status.
The collared mangabey, also called red-capped mangabey and white-collared mangabey is a species of primate in the family Cercopithecidae of Old World monkeys. It formerly included the sooty mangabey as a subspecies. As presently defined, the collared mangabey is monotypic.
The moustached guenon or moustached monkey is a species of primate in the family Cercopithecidae. It is found in Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon.
The Tana River red colobus, also called the eastern red colobus, is a highly endangered species of primate in the family Cercopithecidae. It is endemic to a narrow zone of gallery forest near the Tana River in southeastern Kenya.
The Sanje mangabey is a highly endangered Old World monkey of the white-eyelid mangabey group from the Eastern Arc Mountains in Tanzania. They are about 50–65 centimetres (20–26 in) in length, excluding the tail, and their body colour is greyish. Fruit makes up about 70% of their diet. They live in valley forests and on mountain slopes, but are mostly ground-dwelling, which makes them susceptible to hunting and poaching. Their habitat is being degraded, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed their conservation status as being "endangered".
The central chimpanzee or tschego is a subspecies of chimpanzee closely related to both gorillas, orangutans and humans. It occurs mainly in Gabon, Cameroon, and the Republic of the Congo, but also, to a lesser extent, in other regions.
The Osman Hill's mangabey, also known as the rusty-mantled mangabey, is a species of crested mangabey in the family Cercopithecidae with a restricted distribution in West Africa.
Simian-T-lymphotropic viruses, also Simian T-cell leukemia viruses (STLVs), are retroviruses closely related to the human sexually and breastfeeding transmissible viruses HTLV. They have subtypes 1 through 4 as compared to HTLV 1 through 4, and each subtype has its own serovars. Together they comprise PTLVs A study has shown that STLV-1 Tax and SBZ proteins have similar functions to their counterparts of HTLV-1. STLV-1 is oncogenic in Japanese macaques.
Beatrice H. Hahn is an American virologist and biomedical researcher best known for work which established that HIV, the virus causing AIDS, began as a virus passed from apes to humans. She is a professor of Medicine and Microbiology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. In November 2002, Discover magazine listed Hahn as one of the 50 most important women scientists.
