King Colobus monkeys are an arboreal Old World monkey, so live most of their lives up in the trees, however they do occasionally forage for food on the rainforest floor as well. They don’t travel very much – despite looking for food for most of the day, they often won’t travel more than 500m during their daily forage. They will occasionally consume fruits and flowers, but the majority of their diet is made up of leaves, as their chambered stomach allows them to break down tough to digest plant matter.

When they are first born, King Colobus young have bright white fur. This allows the adults in their group to easily spot them and pick them up should there be danger nearby. After around a month they start to develop their darker fur.

When danger is spotted, King Colobus monkeys communicate with 2 distinct alarm calls, snorts and roars. Depending on what the danger is, the Colobus will use different call patterns, for example when they see a leopard they will snort followed by roars, whereas the warning for a crowned eagle is no snorts and many roars.

Unfortunately the King Colobus is now considered endangered in the wild, and this is largely due to habitat loss. The rainforests they live in are constantly under threat from logging companies and repurposed as agricultural land, primarily palm oil plantations. They are rarely found in disturbed forests, leading the majority of them to only be found in protected areas now.