The newly recognised monkey species Colobus congoensis. Image courtesy of Daniel Rosengren
Joel Kontinen
A new Lazarus animal, black colobus monkey from a remote part of the Congo Basin rainforest, is thought to be severely threatened by poaching.
The monkey is known as Likweli to local people who hunt it for bushmeat, and it has been given the scientific name Colobus congoensis. It lives in one of the most inaccessible parts of Africa, without paved roads or infrastructure. This monkey is relative to other Asian colobine monkeys.
“A typical expedition involves multiple modes
of transportation: a flight, followed by a motorcycle ride, two days of hiking
on foot and finally travel by dugout canoe to reach the monkey’s range,”
says Kate Detwiler at Florida Atlantic
University.
Detwiler
and her colleagues believe the species’ mask-like face may represent ancestral traits that were present before the African and Asian colobine lineages
diverged over 8 million years ago. according to evolution, “If so, likweli may
have retained characteristics that were subsequently modified or lost in the
other African colobus species,” says Detwiler.
Scientists
first became aware of the species in 2008 when a team surveying on the banks of
the Lomami river, in what is now Lomami National Park, took a photo that showed
only a part of a monkey that had not been seen before, high in the canopy.
Then, in
November 2018, another group again spotted the monkey, which is about 1.3
metres long and weighs around 7 kilograms. Between 2018 and 2022, there
were 114 recorded observations of the new species, 25 of which were from
vocalisations.
Source:
James
Woodford 2026
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