Featured Animal: Patas Monkey

The patas monkey is a ground-dwelling monkey that inhabits areas across western Africa and parts of eastern Africa. The patas monkey is the only monkey species of it's kind and is thought to be the fastest primate in the world as the patas monkey can run at speeds of more than 30mph.

The patas monkey is fairly large in size and can grow to heights of up to 80 cm tall. The patas monkey also has an extremely long tail which is often around the same length as the patas monkey's body.

Patas monkeys tend to be found inhabiting more open areas rather than dense woodland as the patas monkey's main defence is to simply run away which it can do more effectively if there aren't so many trees in the way. Patas monkeys are most commonly found on the outskirts of woodland and open savannas and grassland.

Patas monkeys live together in troops which contain around 10 patas monkey individuals. The patas monkey troop is contains only one male patas monkey and consists of female patas monkeys and their young. A young male patas monkey will leave the group when he reaches sexual maturity before the age of 5. Female patas monkeys tend to remain in the same group as their mother although this is not always the case.

Unlike most other primate troops, the patas monkey troop is actually led by the female patas monkeys who can often be seen getting into disputes with other patas monkey troops over territory, The male patas monkey is usually not territorial and tends to take a back-seat when these disputes between rivalling female patas monkeys are going on.

The job of the male patas monkey in the patas monkey troop is primarily to guard the female patas monkeys. If their is oncoming danger such as a predator, the male patas monkey tries to intimidate the unwanted approacher by producing very loud vocal calls while at the same time moving away from the rest of the troop in order to lure the danger away. The female patas monkeys will then run away, closely followed by the male patas monkey.

The patas monkey is an omnivorous animal, spending it's time foraging for a mixture of both plants and small animals. Patas monkeys feed on insects, fruits, leaves, grasses, seeds, roots, birds eggs and even small reptiles such as lizards.

Due to the relatively large size of the patas monkey and the fact that the patas monkey is able to out-run many predators, the patas monkey is not an easy meal for a carnivore to catch. The main predators of the patas monkey are wildcats such as leopards and cheetahs along with hyenas and birds of prey that hunt the younger, smaller and more vulnerable patas monkey individuals.

Female patas monkeys give birth to a single patas monkey baby that is born after a gestation period of around 5 months, usually in the cooler months between November and February. When a patas monkey baby is first born, it is entirely black in colour and does not begin to develop it's thicker reddish fur until it is at least a couple of months old.

Due to the fact that patas monkeys tend to live in dryer grassland habitats rather than the forests, patas monkeys have not been greatly affected by factors such as habitat loss and patas monkeys therefore remain to be one of the world's thriving primate species.