Thomas Butynski and Yvonne de Jong,
Eastern Africa Primate Diversity and Conservation Program
The taxonomy of the Gentle Monkey Cercopithecus mitis has been debated for many decades, mainly due to the complex and wide distribution of its many subspecies. Tanzania and Kenya, together, support no fewer than eight of the currently recognized 17 subspecies. In the most recent issue of Primate Conservation (Issue 34, April 2020), Butynski and De Jong review the taxonomy and distribution of these eight subspecies and describe a new subspecies endemic to central north Tanzania, the Manyara Monkey Cercopithecus mitis manyaraensis. This new subspecies is named after Lake Manyara which lies near the centre of its geographic range.
The degree of threat status for each of Africa’s primate species and subspecies was assessed/reassessed in April 2016 in Rome during the IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group’s ‘African Primate Red List Assessment Workshop’. In December 2019, the first 122 of these assessments were published (www.iucnredlist.org).
Five species have been added to the Lolldaiga Hills Ranch Bird List since May 2019. These species were encountered by Gerhard Nicholaus, Gudrun Galetz and Tom Butynski. The list now stands at 419 species.
