There is a fringe of silvery hair around the face as well as long white "epaulettes" on its shoulders.

[4] The king colobus monkey is found in lowland and montane tropical rainforests.

[2] Much of the habitat of the king colobus has been destroyed by humans for farming and secondary forests have begun to fill in this area.

The forest habitats experiences significant dry seasons and two rainfall peaks.

[4] Diet consists mainly of arboreal leaves, but includes fruit and flowers depending on the season.

[6][7][8] The king colobus have an average home range of 22 hectares with some overlap between groups.

[4] The king colobus live in a single male (polygynous) and multi-male (polygynandrous) mating system.

[4] The king colobus has a moderate-sized range; it used to be a common and widespread species but numbers have declined over the last few decades.

[4] The species is also maintained as part of an EAZA ex situ captive breeding programme by several European zoos.