Mantled Guereza - Physical Description - Distribution and Habitat

Distribution and Habitat

The guereza is distributed throughout Equatorial Africa. It ranges from Nigeria and Cameroon in the west to Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and northern Tanzania in the east. Guerezas live in both deciduous and evergreen forests. They mainly inhabit forest and savanna woodlands and often extend into highland and montane forests. They can be found in other forest habitats, both primary and secondary, such as riparian, gallery and upland forests. They are particularly common in forests close to rivers and lakes and at high elevations. They can be found in elevations as high as 3300 m (10,826.8 ft). This species prefers forests of secondary growth and selects them over old growth forests if given the choice. It is likely that the guerezas prefer second growth forests due to more choice in food items in some of them and weaker chemical defenses from the plants. Guerezas are sometimes found in swamps as well as human-made habitats such as eucalyptus plantations, which may be used when the monkeys have nutritional deficiencies.