Zanzibar Red Colobus

One of the rarest monkeys in Africa — fewer than 2,000 remain, and only on Unguja.

Found only on the main island of Zanzibar, the red colobus is recognised as a separate species and is endemic to the archipelago. Colobus are leaf-eating and arboreal, spending most of their time in the trees. Curiously, the opposable thumb usually vital for tree life is reduced to a stump in this family — hence the name Colobus, from the Latin for “deformed”.