This should be a fun quick and easy series, the final two mystery caches many or may not be winter friendly depending on the amount of show we receive.
The patas monkey is slender with long arms and legs, better suited to walking and running than to moving in the trees. They are very fast on the ground moving up to 55 kph or 34 mph. They do prefer to sleep in trees and will each sleep in their own separate tree. They live in Central Africa and the males have blue scrotums.The patas monkey is found in the grasslands and semi-desert regions, stretching from west to east Africa. Unlike most other monkeys, the patas monkeys do not live primarily in trees or heavily forested areas. Instead, they prefer to live on open land.
Their diet consists of seeds, gum, insects and tubers. Due to shrinking habitat from over-grazing by domestic cattle, and land being used for farms, patas monkeys have been forced to raid farms for food, eating all sorts of grain, including cash crops like cotton. As a result, they have been targeted as crop pests, and many of them are hunted – for food, and to control the loss of crops.
Males are much larger than females, growing to a height of 83 cm (33 inches). They have reddish-brown hair on their backs, and white and grey hair on their bellies, legs, arms and faces. The white hair under the nose forms a “mustache”.
Patas monkeys have evolved in many ways to survive on open ground. They run very fast, up to 34 mph (55 km/h) – this makes them the fastest primates on land. when threatened, they do climb trees to escape from predators, but primarily rely on their running speed.
Because of the dangers associated with living on the ground in Africa, they breed very quickly to counter-act the higher mortality rate they have, in comparison to other primates.