Area of zoo
Enclosure status
Open
IUCN status
Endangered
Scientific name
Cercocebus lunulatus
Order
Primates
Type
Mammals
Family
Cercopithecidae
Region
Burkinda Faso, Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana
Habitat
Forests

White-naped mangabey facts

Mangabeys communicate by shrieks, whoops, chuckles and grunts as well as flashing their white eyelids with other facial gestures. White-naped mangabeys are have very fragmented populations because of habitat loss and are now rare in all the sites where they still survive. Our white-naped mangabeys can be found by Gorilla kingdom, and are a part of a very successful European mangabey breeding programme. 

What do white-naped mangabey look like?

The white-naped mangabey has grey-brown fur with a white underside and long black stripe that runs down the back. 

Baby white naped mangabey on a hammock at London Zoo
White-naped mangabey at London Zoo

What do white-naped mangabeys eat?

Mangabey monkeys have large cheek pouches in which they store everything they eat, mainly fruit but also leaves, nuts, seeds, insects and spiders.

White-naped mangabey habitat

On the ground and in the trees of tropical forests.

White-naped mangabey threats

Deforestation and hunting have decimated the mangabey populations making each individual monkey incredibly precious. Many of their forests are being converted into rubber plantations, something we are fighting at ZSL through our SPOTT platform. 

Our African primates

  • Gorilla eating at London Zoo
    Gorilla gorilla gorilla

    Western lowland gorilla

    Gorillas are the world's largest primate, weighing up to 200kg. They share 98.4% of their DNA with humans, and all four gorilla subspecies are critically endangered.

  • Celebes crested macaque at London Zoo
    Macaca nigra

    Celebes crested macaque

    The Celebes crested macaque is mainly under threat because of hunting, in Indonesia they are sometimes eaten at Christmas dinner.

  • A colobus monkey holding onto a tree in Monkey Valley
    Colobus guereza

    Eastern black-and-white colobus

    These have just four long fingers on each hand and a bump where you'd expect to see a thumb. 

  • Alaotran Gentle Lemur
    Alaotran gentle lemur

    Alaotran gentle lemur

    These lemurs can actually swim, with mothers even carrying their young on her back whilst paddling along.

  • A wide-eyed aye-aye grips onto a log
    Daubentonia madagascariensis

    Aye-aye

    Aye-ayes use their long finger to tap on branches and listen for hollow sounds, then they use their strong front teeth to rip open the bark before reaching into the hole to pull out their prey. 

  • Ring-tailed lemur in the In with the Lemurs exhibit at London Zoo
    Lemur catta

    Ring-tailed lemur

    There are just 2000 ring-tailed lemurs in the wild today. as droughts caused by Droughts caused by climate change are destroying the fruiting trees that lemurs depend upon.

  • Our animals
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