Blue Nile Patas Monkey

• Common Name: Blue Nile Patas Monkey
• Taxonomy Classification Year: 1862
• Monkey Size: 60 to 87 cm (24 to 34 in)
• Skin Color(s): Golden-brown
• Habitat: Forest, savanna or grassland
• Diet: Omnivorous
• Native Countries: Ethiopia, Sudan

The Blue Nile patas monkey^[1], also known as Heuglin’s patas monkey, is an Old-World monkey endemic to Africa along the Blue Nile Valley in Sudan, Ethiopia, and possibly South Sudan.

• These African primates have shaggy reddish fur and black faces and noses. These monkeys resemble a greyhound in structure.
• The belly is white, as are the feet and legs. They have a slender bodies, long legs for four-legged locomotion, and a prominent thorax.
• In addition, the Blue Nile patas monkey has white hairs on the upper lip that form the shape of a handlebar mustache.
• This, combined with the lack of a stripe between the ear and eye in other Erythrocebus species, sets it apart from the rest of the genus.

• Although first described in 1862 and made synonymous with the common patas monkey (Erythrocebus patas) in 1927. However, a study in 2017 reclassified it as a distinct species.
• Blue Nile patas monkeys are one of the fastest land monkeys, reaching speeds of around 34 miles per hour.
• Known from the Blue Nile basin of western Ethiopia and neighboring Sudan, the Blue Nile Patas is geographically separated from other Patas monkeys by the Ethiopian Highlands and the Sudd Marsh region of Sudan.
• They live in groups of several females of up to 60 monkeys. The group consists of only one adult male for most of the year.
• Threatened with habitat loss, the species could serve as a flagship for conserving biologically rich wildlife areas in Sudan and Ethiopia.