The Eastern Africa Primate Diversity and Conservation Program is in the process of documenting the distribution of the regions primates and would very much like to receive details and photos of your encounters with primates in Eastern Africa.

Primates represent one of Eastern Africa's best studied taxonomic groups of mammals. Nonetheless, the taxonomic status of many of the region’s primates is still under debate and the geographical distribution and conservation status of many of the primate taxa remain poorly understood.

Some facts about the primates of East Africa.....

East Africa supports seventeen genera, 38 species and 47 subspecies of primates. Tanzania holds the largest number of primate species (27), followed by Uganda (23), Kenya (19), Rwanda (15) and Burundi (13). Six percent of the genera, 24% of the species, and 47% of the subspecies are endemic to the region. East Africa supports 68% of Africa’s primate genera and 41% of Africa’s primate species. In East Africa, Tanzania has the highest number and percentage of endemic genera (one, 7%) and endemic species (at least six, 22%). According to the IUCN Red List, 26% of the 38 species, and 17% of the 47 subspecies, are ‘threatened’ with extinction (Source: De Jong, Y.A. & Butynski, T.M. 2012. The Primates of East Africa: Country Lists and Conservation Priorities. African Primates 7 (2): 135-155.).

We thank you very much for sharing your records! Visit our website, www.wildsolutions.nl, for primate photographs, maps, vocal profiles of the galagidae, publications and reports etc.

Yvonne A. de Jong & Thomas M. Butynski
Eastern Africa Primate Diversity and Conservation Program, Nanyuki, Kenya less ↑