Nomenclature

The owl-faced monkey, Cercopithecus hamlyni, is also called in French Cercoptheque de Hamlyn and Cercopitheque a tete de hibou (Hamlyn's cercopithecine and cercopithecine with owl's head), in German Eulenkopfmeerkatze ("owl-headed meerkat = owl-headed cercopithecine or guenon" which is easily confused with the English common name "meerkat," for the species Suricata surricata), in the Lega dialect Mutuba, and in the Kahuzi dialect Fuya (Kingdon, 1997). The owl-faced monkey is also known as Hamlyn's Monkey or Hamlyn's owl-faced guenon, named after a once well known animal dealer, John Daniel Hamlyn, who brought the first owl-faced monkey into captivity at the London Zoo in 1907 (Pocock, 1907 and Catlow, 1994 & 1995).