Monkeys are found all over the world and Cameroon specifically has a very diverse group of species. They live in tropical forests and need a forest canopy to travel through. Monkey species are arboreal, meaning they live in trees. They are highly adapted to living in trees and even aid the trees by dispersing their seeds away from parent trees.
A monkey has little defense against predators such as leopards. By staying in the tree canopy, they can avoid most predators except for hawks and owls. The trees also provide food in the form of leaves and fruit, allowing monkeys to rarely need to walk on the ground. The leaves of trees also provide effective cover, allowing them to hide easily. They can move faster in the canopy than species on the ground in the thick plant understory.
The greatest threat to monkeys are humans, by hunting and logging forests or converting them into farmland. There is a lot of forest in Cameroon, but it is also changing rapidly. Logging is very common and hunting is an easy way to make money. It does worry me that if we continue using the earth as we do, we will lose many of the species I have seen. But I have faith that young people will learn from the errors of previous generations.
