Monkey drive

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A monkey drive is an operation where large numbers of wild monkeys are rounded up and killed in order to protect crops such as rice, banana and citrus trees. Monkey drives have been reported in Sierra Leone, where they were supported by the government. [1]

In 1965, Gerald Durrell organised a monkey drive in Sierra Leone during a collecting mission for Jersey Zoo (formerly the Durrell Wildlife Park). The monkey drive was out of season, and not to exterminate monkeys, but in order to capture colobus monkeys. In his book on the expedition, published in 1972, he wrote that 2000 to 3000 monkeys are killed in monkey drives in Sierra Leone each year, including the "two species" of colobus monkeys, which do no damage to cocoa plantations, and were theoretically protected by law. [2] The species mentioned by Durrell are now considered genera: black-and-white colobus and red-and-black colobus.

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The Ugandan red colobus or ashy red colobus is an endangered species of red colobus monkey, recognised as a distinct species since 2001. There is disagreement however over taxonomy with many considering the Ugandan red colobus to be a subspecies. The Ugandan red colobus is an Old World monkey which is found in five different locations across Uganda and Tanzania.

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References

  1. Bamforth, Enid (2005). www.life.sierraleone.uk. ISBN   1-904985-24-6.
  2. Durrell, Gerald (1972). Catch Me a Colobus. pp. 113–128. ISBN   0-00-633264-1.