In the 1800s, the guereza was hunted in its native land (Ethiopia, known as Abyssinia). But the real threat came when European designers created a vogue for monkey skin fashions. Colobus "fur" was used as decorative trim on garments, resulting in jackets with a vaguely simian silhouette. (2/5)
In 1922, Abyssinian authorities announced that the once-thriving species was threatened with extinction and imposed a limit on exports. Skins continued to be in fashion, however. In 1925, the year of the Snopes "Monkey" Trials in the US, an “evolution coat” made of monkey was all the rage.(3/5)
Decades later, a syndicated science columnist reported that locust plagues in Africa were blamed in part on the killing of guereza monkeys. (Though the claim is likely false, it is generally sound practice to blame random shit on monkey hunting.)
Today, the guereza, while declining in population, is a species of Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. Humans still hunt them for their skins, but the markets for the skins today are, thankfully, much smaller.(5/5)
The famous (from "Thriftshop") big Goodwill on Dearborn in Seattle had an absolutely horrific Black-and-white Colobus cape which was apparently made from an entire troupe, with bright white infant skins making a fringe along with the adult tails.
