Patas Monkey (Erythrocebus patas) Fact Sheet: Population & Conservation Status

Abundance unknown across range (Isbell 2013)

• Shy, cryptic, difficult to study in the wild
• More numerous in west than in east Africa
• Reported as the most frequently sighted mammal outside national parks in southeastern Senegal (Isbell 2013)
• Geographic range declining in some countries (Kingdon et al. 2008)

Population trend

• Decreasing

Introduced population, southwestern Puerto Rico (Gonzáles-Martínez 1998, 2004)

• 1960s - 1982: western patas monkeys (from Nigeria) housed at the La Parguera Primate Facility on the islands of Cueva and Guayacan, Puerto Rico
• 1974 - 1981: migrants began to appear on the mainland
  • Permanent populations now established
  • 40-year history of patas on the mainland
• 1991-1993: population size range 61-127 individuals
  • Forming 4 heterosexual groups and 4-5 all-male groups

IUCN Status

• Near Threatened (2020 assessment) (de Jong et al. 2020, amended 2022)

CITES Status:

• Appendix II (UNEP 2019)

Other Status

• African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Class B (Mittermeier et al. 2013)

Inhabit many protected areas

• 37 reported in 2013 (listed in Mittermeier et al. 2013)

Need continued monitoring of populations (Mittermeier et al. 2013)

Habitat loss & desertification

• Land converted into farmland (Mittermeier et al. 2013)
• Overgrazing by cattle (Mittermeier et al. 2013)
• In Kenya, removal of Acacia drepanolobium for the making of charcoal (Isbell personal communication)

Hunting by humans

• For bushmeat (Mittermeier et al. 2013)
• In retaliation for crop raiding (Mittermeier et al. 2013)

Patas monkeys (Erythrocebus patas).

Image credit: © Eric Kilby. From Flickr. Some rights reserved.

de Jong et al. (2009)

Gonzáles-Martínez (1998)

Gonzáles-Martínez (2004)

Isbell (2013)

Kingdon et al. (2008)

Mittermeier et al. (2013)