Travelling with monkeys

Today we took part in a travel pattern survey which involves following a habituated group of Angola Black- and-white Colobus. The survey data will give us an indication on home-range and habitat use. One of the initial goals is to identify and characterize movement of the tight-knit Colobus groups trough the forest patches. We are attempting to identify primary feeding, resting and sleeping trees or areas, by calculating percentages of time spent on that activity per location. After identifying those primary activity sites, we can hopefully gain some insight in the movement to and from these locations, and the relation of factors like habitat quality, food availability and seasonality to these patterns.

Female Colobus with her young.