The Angolan talapoin (''Miopithecus talapoin''), also known as the southern talapoin, is a species of

primate Primates is an order (biology), order of mammals, which is further divided into the Strepsirrhini, strepsirrhines, which include lemurs, galagos, and Lorisidae, lorisids; and the Haplorhini, haplorhines, which include Tarsiiformes, tarsiers a ...

in the family

Cercopithecidae Old World monkeys are primates in the family (biology), family Cercopithecidae (). Twenty-four genus, genera and 138 species are recognized, making it the largest primate family. Old World monkey genera include baboons (genus ''Papio''), red colo ...

. Talapoins are the smallest species of Old-World monkeys.

Description

The fur of the Angolan talapoin is coarsely banded yellow-and-black on the back and flanks and white or greyish white on the chest and belly. The head is round and short-snouted with a hairless face which has a black nose skin bordering the face. The scrotum is coloured pink medially and blue laterally. They show mild sexual dimorphism in body size, the average head and body length is , the average tail length is and the average weight is for males and for females.

Habitat

The Angolan talapoin is limited to dense evergreen vegetation on the banks of rivers that often flow through miombo ('' Brachystegia'') woodland or, as that is cleared, areas under cultivation.

Distribution

The Angolan talapoin occurs in the coastal watersheds south of the

Congo River The Congo River, formerly also known as the Zaire River, is the second-longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the third-largest river in the world list of rivers by discharge, by discharge volume, following the Amazon Ri ...

, including the Mebridege River, Loge River, Cuanza River, Nhia River and Cuvo River, they also extend into the upper reaches of the Cuango River. This species is found on the coast of

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

, south to about 13'S, and the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

as far as the Cuango River and on both sides of the

Kasai River The Kasai River (, ; called Cassai in Angola) is a left bank tributary of the Congo River, located in Central Africa. The river begins in central Angola and flows to the east until it reaches the border between Angola and the Democratic Republ ...

Biology

The Angolan talapoin is both diurnal and mainly arboreal, they occasionally descend to the ground while foraging. They are proficient swimmers and a common defensive strategy is to sleep on branches overhanging rivers so that they can dive into the water to escape from danger. The social organisation of the Angola talapoin is that they live in quite large groups of 60 to 100 animals. At night the group is gathered together in trees close to the water, splitting up into smaller sub-groups in the morning so that they can spread out to forage. Each group normally consists of several fully mature males, many females and their offspring. Angolan talapoins do not show any territoriality, which is unlike their close relatives the guenons. They seem to enjoy play and this mostly takes place between juveniles; however, the males tend to engage in social play more often than female. The home ranges of the Angola talapoin are likely to be larger, and the population densities lower, than is the case with Gabon talapoin because forest strips are narrower and resources scarcer. The fluctuations in climate since the last glaciation have probably reinforced this species' primary adaptation to 'strip living' as longer dry seasons and less extensive flooding under the generally cooler and drier climate that now dominates outside the rainforest seems to have favoured more terrestrial habits than are apparent in the Gabon talapoin. It mainly feeds on fruits, but also on seeds, young foliage, and invertebrates.

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q682347 Angolan talapoin Mammals of Angola Angolan talapoin Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber