Greater spot-nosed monkey

greater spot-nosed monkey[1]
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[2]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Primates
Family:	Cercopithecidae
Genus:	Cercopithecus
Species:	C. nictitans
Binomial name
Cercopithecus nictitans (Linnaeus, 1766)
Geographic range

The greater spot-nosed monkey or Putty-nosed monkey (Cercopithecus nictitans) is one of the smallest Old World monkeys. It is a guenon of the C. mitis group, native to West Africa and living to some extent in rain forests but more often in the transition zone between rain forest and savannah. It is primarily arboreal and often associates with monkeys of other species.^[3] Both their common names come from the monkeys' prominent white nose.

The greater spot-nosed monkey lives in groups consisting of one adult male, a number of adult females, and their dependent offspring.^[4] There has been little recent research into its behaviour, and most of it has concentrated on its auditory communication. Males use three call types which have been described as 'booms', 'pyows' and 'hacks'. These are used in a number of contexts including as alarm calls.

As in some other species of monkeys, it has been argued that the acoustical structure of greater spot-nosed monkey alarm calls varies according to the kind of predator that has been spotted^[4] It has also been suggested that the monkey combines different sounds into a sequence, which has an entirely different meaning from the sounds out of which it is made.^[5] For instance, the sound "pyow" alone means that another animal, like a leopard, is lurking nearby, and "hack" means that a flying animal, like an eagle, is flying nearby. But when the two are combined together, like in the sequence "pyow pyow hack hack hack hack" they have an entirely different meaning: let's get out of here and move to another place.

References

1. ^ Groves, C. (2005). Wilson, D. E., & Reeder, D. M, eds. ed. Mammal Species of the World (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 157. OCLC 62265494. ISBN 0-801-88221-4. http://www.bucknell.edu/msw3/browse.asp?id=12100484. 
2. ^ Oates, J. F. & Groves, C. P. (2008). Cercopithecus nictitans. In: IUCN 2008. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 4 January 2009.
3. ^ Eckardt, W., and Zuberbühler, K. (2004). "Cooperation and competition in two forest monkeys". Behavioural Ecology 15: 400–411. doi:10.1093/beheco/arh032. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Arnold, K., & Zuberbühler, K. (2006). "The alarm-calling system of adult male putty-nosed monkeys, Cercopithecus nictitans martini". Animal Behaviour 72: 643–653. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2005.11.017. 
5. ^ Arnold, K., & Zuberbühler, K (2008). "Meaningful call combinations in a non-human primate". Current Biology 18 (5): R202–R203. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2008.01.040. PMID 18334192. 

External links

• Mammal species of the World: Cercopithecus nictitans