The mysterious monkey eating bamboo in Africa

People discovered Bale monkeys from the beginning of the last century, but during more than 100 years scientists did not know what they ate to live.

A Bale monkey in Ethiopia.Photo: BBC .

The BBC said that the Bale monkey (Chlorocebus djamdjamensis) was discovered in 1902. They live only in forests in the Bale Massif region and Hagere Selam in southeastern Ethiopia. Since then, scientists have not found much information about their lives.

"For scientists, Bale monkeys are difficult to study because they live in forests lying on rugged and dense mountain terrain , " said Dr. Peter Fashing, an expert at the University of California, USA. - explain.

Between 2007 and 2008 Dr. Fashing and Ethiopian scientists studied two groups of Bale monkeys in Obobullu forest in southeastern Ethiopia. They traveled for months in the forest to follow the monkeys and record their behavior.

"Initially the monkeys were afraid to see people, but gradually they trusted me and let me observe them at a certain distance , " BBC quoted Dr. Addisu Mekonnen - an expert of Addis University. Ababa, Ethiopia.

The team found Bale monkeys ate the leaves of 11 plants, but bamboo leaves accounted for 77% of their daily food intake. Meanwhile, most primates eat 50 to more than 100 species of plants and their food is much more nutritious than the Bale monkey food.

In addition to Bale monkeys, there is only one group of primates that eat bamboo leaves in the world. There are three bamboo leaf lemurs on Madagascar. The proportion of bamboo leaves in the feed of all three species accounts for 90%.

Scientists believe that Bale's monkey dependence on bamboo makes them very vulnerable to extinction, because Ethiopian bamboo trees are being exploited for commercial purposes.