Gelada

Ethiopian Highlands · grass eaters · rare monkeys

Bleeding-heart patch. Male geladas have a bright red patch on their chest that looks like a bleeding heart, which is why people sometimes call them bleeding-heart monkeys. When a male gets excited, the patch turns even redder and brighter.

Grass-loving grazers. Geladas eat more grass than almost any other monkey on Earth, munching on it like little lawn mowers. Up to 90 percent of their diet is just grass, making them super specialized eaters.

Mountain dwellers. These monkeys live only in the Ethiopian Highlands at very high elevations, between 5,900 and 14,400 feet above sea level. They are the only monkeys that have adapted to live at such high, cold mountain altitudes.

One-of-a-kind species. Geladas are the only living members of their entire genus, called Theropithecus, which means 'beast-ape' in Greek. They are unique and have no close living relatives except their distant cousins, the baboons.