A Cercopithecus ascanius schmidti, Kinshasa, Congo (Democratic Republic)

The photograph depicts a Cercopithecus ascanius schmidti. This guenon is known by several common names: red-tailed monkey, white spot-nosed monkey, and Schmidt's spot-nosed guenon. All together they give a pretty good description of this charming, sociable monkey. They have white noses and long red tails. Their tails help them balance as they move through the trees where they spend most of their time looking for fruits, leaves, and insects. Schmidt's spot-nosed guenons can live in large groups of up to 50 monkeys, but when things get too crowded for the amount of food available, the troop may split into smaller groups. According to Kingdon (1997) the Cercopithecus ascanius schmidti (Uganda red-tail guenon) lives north of the Congo River from the Ubangi River to Uganda and west Kenya and east of the Lualaba River to the Lukuga River. This photograph was taken when Eliot Elisofon traveled to Africa from March 17, 1970 to July 17, 1970.