NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Upper Guinea Red Colobus
Piliocolobus badius (Kerr, 1792)
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Western Red Colobus Monkey
peterichman from York, Yorkshire · CC BY 2.0 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
The western red colobus (Piliocolobus badius), also known as the bay red colobus, rust red colobus or Upper Guinea red colobus, is a species of Old World monkey in West African forests from Senegal to Ghana. All other species of red colobuses have formerly been considered subspecies of P. badius.
The monkey is a frequent prey of the common chimpanzee. In 1994, western red colobus monkeys infected many chimpanzees with Ebola virus after being hunted and consumed by the chimps.
Wikipedia contributors, Western red colobus; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T12:40:48.953597+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Piliocolobus badius (Kerr, 1792)
- Name authority
- (Kerr, 1792)
- Common name
- Upper Guinea Red Colobus
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Mammalia
- Order
- Primates
- Family
- Cercopithecidae
- Genus
- Piliocolobus
- Extinction status
- Recorded extant
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classMammalia Linnaeus, 1758
- subclassTheria Parker & Haswell, 1897
- infraclassEutheria Gill, 1872
- orderPrimates Linnaeus, 1758
- suborderHaplorrhini Pocock, 1918
- infraorderSimiiformes Haeckel, 1866
- superfamilyCercopithecoidea Gray, 1821
- familyCercopithecidae Gray, 1821
- subfamilyColobinae Jerdon, 1867
- tribeColobini Jerdon, 1867
- genusPiliocolobus Rochebrune, 1877
- speciesPiliocolobus badius (Kerr, 1792)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Piliocolobus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Central African Red ColobusPiliocolobus foai (de Pousargues, 1899) | CercopithecidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Udzungwa Red ColobusPiliocolobus gordonorum (Matschie, 1900) | CercopithecidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Zanzibar Red ColobusPiliocolobus kirkii (Gray, 1868) | CercopithecidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Lang's Red ColobusPiliocolobus langi (J. A. Allen, 1925) | CercopithecidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Ulindi River Red ColobusPiliocolobus lulindicus Matschie, 1914 | CercopithecidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Oustalet's Red ColobusPiliocolobus oustaleti (Trouessart, 1906) | CercopithecidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Preuss's Red ColobusPiliocolobus preussi Matschie, 1900 | CercopithecidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Semliki Red ColobusPiliocolobus semlikiensis (Colyn, 1991) | CercopithecidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Ashy Red ColobusPiliocolobus tephrosceles (Elliot, 1907) | CercopithecidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Thollon's Red ColobusPiliocolobus tholloni A. Milne-Edwards, 1886 | CercopithecidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Miss Waldron's Red ColobusPiliocolobus waldronae (Hayman, 1936) | CercopithecidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Lomami Red ColobusPiliocolobus parmentieri (Colyn & Verheyen, 1987) | CercopithecidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Procolobus badius (Kerr, 1792) (Kerr, 1792) | synonym |
| Simia ferruginea Shaw, 1800 Shaw, 1800 | synonym |
| Colobus ferruginosus É. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1812 É. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1812 | synonym |
| Colobus rufoniger Ogilby, 1838 Ogilby, 1838 | synonym |
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=944230 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:4HTQH. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.