The Udzungwa Mountains, part of the Eastern Arc mountain chain, raise for over 2500 meters above the plains of Central Tanzania. Humid winds blowing from the Indian Ocean move west over the dry savannah-covered lowland until they meet the Udzungwas, which forces them to rise and condense turning into abundant rainfall.

This transforms the mountains into rain forest islands in a sea of grassland, home to a multitude of species, many of which can only bene found here as the Udzungwa red colobus (Piliocolobus gordonarum), a primate that takes its name from the red fur on its head.

The biological importance of the Udzungwas has been recognized in 1992 with the establishment of the Udzungwa Mountains National Park, but this fragile ecosystem is though still threatened. The abundance of natural resources, like water, timber, and bush meat, attracts both legal and illegal human activity which challenges the protection of this unique biodiversity hotspot.