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

primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians ( monkeys and apes, the latter includin ...

in the family

Cercopithecidae 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 ...

. 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 The Miombo woodland is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome (in the World Wide Fund for Nature scheme) located primarily in Central Africa. It includes four woodland savanna ecoregions (listed below) characterized b ...

(''

Brachystegia ''Brachystegia'' is a genus of tree of the subfamily Detarioideae that is native to tropical Africa. Trees of the genus are commonly known as miombo, and are dominant in the miombo woodlands of central and southern tropical Africa. The Zambezi ...

'') 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 ( kg, Nzâdi Kôngo, french: Fleuve Congo, pt, Rio Congo), formerly also known as the Zaire River, is the second longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the second largest river in the world by discharg ...

, including the Mebridege River, Loge River,

Cuanza River The Kwanza River, also known as the Coanza, the Quanza, and the Cuanza, is one of the longest rivers in Angola. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean just south of the national capital Luanda. Geography The river is navigable for about from its ...

, Nhia River and

Cuvo River The Cuvo is a river in central Angola. The river mouth is at the Atlantic Ocean at Benguela Bay, in Cuanza Sul Province. Cuvo is its name in its upper reaches; its lower course is called the Keve or Queve. The river is navigable upstream to Bing ...

, they also extend into the upper reaches of the Cuango River. This species is found on the coast of

Angola , national_anthem = "Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordinat ...

, south to about 13'S, and the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

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

Kasai River The Kasai River ( ; called Cassai in Angola) is a tributary (left side) 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 Repub ...

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 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 The guenons (, ) are Old World monkeys of the genus ''Cercopithecus'' (). Not all members of this genus have the word "guenon" in their common names; also, because of changes in scientific classification, some monkeys in other genera may have c ...

. 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 The Gabon talapoin (''Miopithecus ogouensis''), also known as the northern talapoin, is a small species of African monkey native to riparian habitats in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the western Republic of the Congo and the far western Demo ...

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 The Angolan talapoin (''Miopithecus talapoin''), also known as the southern talapoin, is a species of primate in the family Cercopithecidae. Talapoins are the smallest species of Old-World monkeys. Description The fur of the Angolan talapoin is ...

Mammals of Angola

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber