CreatureData

Western red colobus

Piliocolobus badius (Kerr, 1792)

ENEndangeredprimates

The western red colobus (Piliocolobus badius) is a species in the family Cercopithecidae, order Primates. Recorded adults weigh 7.25 kg to 9.21 kg and live up to 3.16 years. Its IUCN Red List status is Endangered.

Western red colobus (Piliocolobus badius)
Photo: Atamari · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the western red colobus

Weight
7.25 kg – 9.21 kgsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
3.16 yearssrc for Lifespan
Diet
Herbivoresrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
Not recorded
Gestation
161 dayssrc for Gestation
Young per litter or clutch
1src for Young per litter or clutch
Age at maturity
4.06 yearssrc for Age at maturity
Litters or clutches a year
0.5src for Litters or clutches a year
Active
By day (diurnal)src for Active
Lifestyle
Arborealsrc for Lifestyle
Conservation status
Endangered (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
Not recorded

Where does the western red colobus live?

Not recorded

What is the western red colobus?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

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.

From the Wikipedia article “Western red colobus” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Western_red_colobus&oldid=1377200769), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the western red colobus endangered?

The western red colobus is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List: it faces a very high risk of extinction in the wild.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Endangered species. What the categories mean.

How is the western red colobus classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classMammalia
  4. orderPrimates
  5. familyCercopithecidae
  6. genusPiliocolobus
  7. SpeciesPiliocolobus badius (Kerr, 1792)

Synonyms Colobus badius, Colobus ferruginosus, Colobus rufoniger, Procolobus badius, Simia badius, Simia ferruginea

Other names and names in other languages (20)
  • Bay colobusEnglish
  • Red colobusEnglish
  • Upper Guinea Bay colobusEnglish
  • Upper Guinea red colobusEnglish
  • Upper Guinea red colobusEnglish
  • كولبس أحمر غربيArabic
  • Gueréza červenáCzech
  • Roter StummelaffeGerman
  • Westafrikanischer StummelaffeGerman
  • Colobo Rojo OccidentalSpanish
  • Colobe baiFrench
  • Colobe bai d'Afrique occidentaleFrench
  • Colobe rougeFrench
  • Colobe roux de l'OuestFrench
  • nyugati vöröskolobuszHungarian
  • ニシアカコロブスJapanese
  • RødkolobusNorwegian Bokmål
  • gerezanka rudaPolish
  • Colobo-Vermelho-OcidentalPortuguese
  • Красный толстотелRussian

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataIUCN Red List

Relatives of the western red colobus

Other species in the same genus Piliocolobus.

CompareWestern red colobus vs Zanzibar red colobusWestern red colobus vs Tana river red colobusWestern red colobus vs Udzungwa red colobusWestern red colobus vs Pennant's colobus

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the western red colobus?

An adult western red colobus weighs 7.25 kg – 9.21 kg, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Is the western red colobus endangered?

The western red colobus is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, meaning it faces a very high risk of extinction in the wild.

How long does the western red colobus live?

The western red colobus has a recorded lifespan of 3.16 years.

How long is the western red colobus pregnant?

The recorded gestation period is 161 days.

What kind of animal is the western red colobus?

The western red colobus (Piliocolobus badius) belongs to the family Cercopithecidae in the order Primates.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Western red colobus (Piliocolobus badius). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/western-red-colobus

MLA

“Western red colobus (Piliocolobus badius).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/western-red-colobus.

BibTeX
@misc{western_red_colobus_2026,
  title = {Western red colobus (Piliocolobus badius)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/western-red-colobus},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}