{"id":2045384,"date":"2026-07-15T23:02:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T20:02:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2045384"},"modified":"2026-07-15T23:02:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T20:02:49","slug":"new-monkey-species-with-orange-lips-found-hiding-in-drc-forest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2045384","title":{"rendered":"New monkey species with orange lips found ‘hiding’ in DRC forest"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/7e22\/live\/d37622b0-805b-11f1-bee8-53ce494e1abc.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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\"JuniorJunior Amboko<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The monkey, known locally as ‘Likweli’, has distinctive pinkish-orange lips<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A monkey that has striking pinkish-orange lips and a black face – and lives in the forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo – has been confirmed as a new species to science.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The black-furred primate was spotted and photographed hidden away in the high tree canopy of dense tropical forests in Lomami National Park, in the central east of the country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Conservationists working there first reported seeing this unusual-looking animal back in 2008. But they captured just one blurry photograph.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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After another sighting 10 years later, an international team set out to find and study the monkey and revealed that it was a previously unknown species.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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This is only the fifth African monkey species to be discovered in the last 75 years. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Junior Amboko, a PhD student at Florida Atlantic University, played a leading role in the search, which involved audio recordings, photography and detailed genetic studies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The findings were published in the journal PLoS One.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Amboko told BBC News it was an “amazing feeling” to look into the face of an animal that so few people knew existed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Secretive species<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\"JuniorJunior Amboko<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Junior Amboko (left) and Mardoch\u00e9 B. Koko recorded the distinctive, resonant roar of the newly discovered Colobus congoensis monkey in the Lomami National Park, DRC<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“Discovering” a species, in this context, means officially recording and confirming it has evolved to be genetically distinct. Some local people already knew of the monkey’s existence and refer to it by a common name – Likweli.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But Amboko said the monkeys were “kind of shy” – and tended to hide high in the trees.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“As part of our search, we interviewed people in 52 villages close to where the animals live. And only people in eight villages [had ever seen] them,” he recalled.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The research team – from DRC, the US and Germany – gave the animal the Latin name Colobus congoensis<\/i> in recognition of the natural diversity in the country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It belongs to the larger group of colobus monkeys. “These are really important African monkeys that don’t have thumbs,” explained Prof Kate Detwiler from Florida Atlantic University.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Likweli monkey’s distinctive roaring call<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“They’re these herbivores of the canopy that are a critical part of the ecosystem. We think they have a lot to do with processing seeds and germination in the forest.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Prof Detwiler speculates that their unusual, bright facial markings could be a visual signal to other animals, potentially attractive to a mate or that it could allow the animals to identify each other.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The monkeys also have a distinctive “roaring” call. “You often hear them, but don’t see them,” said Amboko.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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They think the animals are rare and restricted to a part of the forest where they can find the food and habitat they need.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The animals are hunted for meat, so the researchers hope that now that Colobus congoensis<\/i> is classified as a distinct species it can be officially protected.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The researchers say they still have a lot of questions about this newly described, secretive species. They plan to carry out a more detailed survey to estimate their population and study their behaviour.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/c15y5wgj4x8o”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/7e22\/live\/d37622b0-805b-11f1-bee8-53ce494e1abc.jpg”] Junior Amboko The monkey, known locally as ‘Likweli’, has distinctive pinkish-orange lips A monkey that has striking pinkish-orange lips and a black face – and lives in the forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo – has been confirmed as a new species to science. The black-furred primate was spotted and photographed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35,226],"class_list":["post-2045384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-bbc-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2045384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2045384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2045384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2045384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2045384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2045384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}