St. Kitts green monkeys originate from West Africa: Genetic evidence from feces

Sequencing of a fragment of mitochondrial DNA extracted from droppings of a green monkey inhabiting the Caribbean island of St. Kitts, and comparing the obtained sequence with sequences determined earlier for the four recognized subspecies of African green monkeys, showed that this monkey can be classified as Cercopithecus aethiops sabaeus, and thus originates from West Africa. As the ancestors of the monkeys reached the island by ships involved in the slave trade in the 17th to 18th centuries, determination of the monkey subspecies suggests that the animals were originally acquired nearby the West African ports from which the ships sailed, and were not brought from the central parts of Africa together with the slaves. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.