A new species of colobus monkey, known locally as likweli, has been discovered in the forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Described in PLOS One, this is only the fifth new species of African monkey to be described in the last 75 years.
The small monkey, named Colobus congoensis, has conspicuous orange lips. Slate grey cheek bones frame black-rimmed eyes, with a body doused in silky black fur and a white patch around the anus.
The first hint that a new primate species could be hiding in the dense forests of the Lomami National Park came in 2008, when conservationists snapped a blurry image of an unidentified primate during an expedition. After a second sighting in 2018, researchers launched a mission to find and describe the mysterious monkey.
Over the next four years, 114 sightings were made over an area of 1,700km2 between the Lomami and Lilo rivers. The monkeys were usually observed in small groups of around six, often alongside other monkey species.
According to Kate Detwiler and Junior Amboko, both from Florida Atlantic University, who observed the monkey, it has “a quiet and watchful nature. When we encounter a group, the monkeys don’t usually flee as many other primates do. Instead, they climb higher into the canopy and simply watch us. It often feels as though we’re studying each other.”
Another distinctive behaviour of the monkeys is their loud calls. Known as roars, they sound like a cross between a burp and the baseline of a house music anthem, and they carry over long distances. These vocalisations are acoustically distinct from those of other colobus monkeys, providing another line of evidence that this is a unique species.
Morphological and genetic analyses showed that likweli are most closely related to black colobus monkeys (Colobus Satanas), even though the two species are separated by over 1,200km of forest and more than 3.5 million years of evolution.
The discovery highlights the importance of the Lomami National Park for primate conservation. Given their restricted range, small population size and the pressures of hunting and habitat loss, the researchers recommend that Colobus congoensis be classified as Endangered on the IUCN Red List.
Detwiler adds, “Discovering a new monkey species is extraordinarily rare, and it highlights how much remains to be documented in the Congo Basin and how urgent it is to protect the small area where this species is found.”
Read more about the study, published in PLOS One.
Top image credit: Junior Amboko, CC-BY 4.0
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