Sanje Mangabey

About the Sanje Mangabey

The Sanje mangabey (Cercocebus sanjei) is a highly endangered Old World monkey of the white-eyelid mangabey group from the Eastern Arc Mountains in Tanzania. They are about 50–65 centimetres (20–26 in) in length, excluding the tail, and their body colour is greyish. Fruit makes up about 70% of their diet. They live in valley forests and on mountain slopes, but are mostly ground-dwelling, which makes them susceptible to hunting and poaching. Their habitat is being degraded, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed their conservation status as being "endangered".

In 1979, two conservationists were on a field trip in a remote forest in the Udzungwa Mountains in Tanzania when they heard the call of an animal that they recognised as being that of a mangabey, a monkey that was not previously known from these mountains. On investigating further, they found that an unknown species of mangabey was involved, the first new species of primate to be discovered in East Africa for many years. The species was described in 1986 by the American primatologist Russell Mittermeier, who gave it the name Cercocebus sanjei.

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