L’Hoest’s monkey (Allochrocebus lhoesti) has a short, dark brown coat with a chestnut colour across the back and a dark belly. Its cheeks are light grey with a pale moustache with a characteristic and prominent white bib. Its tail is long with a hook-shaped at the end and is the only guenon that habitually carries its tail upright.

L’Hoest’s monkey is semi-terrestrial and restricted to the lowland, submontane and montane forests of the Albertine Rift in eastern DRC and western Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda.

This handsome guenon is less well known and more difficult to see than most of the other primates in Uganda, mainly because of its terrestrial habits and because it prefers dense secondary forests.

In Uganda, L’Hoest’s monkey is commonly seen in Kibale Forest, Bwindi Impenetrable or Maramagambo Forest in Queen Elizabeth National Park.

L’Hoest’s Monkey Habitat & Ecology

The species forms one-male-multi-female groups that travel long distances on the ground and forage mainly in lower forest strata.

They are omnivorous with a diet consisting of terrestrial herbaceous vegetation, invertebrates, mushrooms, fruits, flowers and small vertebrates. These monkeys enter fields and gardens to forage on crops in areas close to cultivated land, such as the periphery of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

They live in small groups averaging 10 to 17 individuals, although larger bands of up to 37 individuals have.

This species is often sympatric with Owl-faced Monkeys Cercopithecus Hamlyn, especially west of the Albertine Rift. It is among the most important primate prey of leopards Panthera pardus in the Ituri Forest.