New Monkey Species Found

Excerpt from original article by
Dave Hansford
for National Geographic News
February 4, 2008

A previously unknown species of uakari monkey was found during recent hunting trips in the Amazon, a New Zealand primatologist has announced.

Jean-Phillipe Boubli of the University of Auckland found the animal after following native Yanomamo Indians on their hunts along the Rio Aracá, a tributary of the Rio Negro in Brazil.
[...]

“I searched for that monkey for at least five years. The reason I couldn’t find it was because the place where they were was sort of unexpected.”
[...]
Boubli named the new monkey Cacajao ayresii after Brazilian biologist José Márcio Ayres.

Excerpt from the New Zealand Herald:

In 2003, Dr Boubli described a new species of bearded saki monkey (Chiropotes israelita), and he has said the Pantepui region of the Amazon basin on the Brazil-Venezuela border also contains new species of spider monkey, squirrel monkey and capuchin monkey.

“Finding a relatively large monkey as a new species these days is pretty cool,” Dr Boubli told National Geographic magazine. “It shows how little we really know about the biodiversity of the Amazon.”

Follow links above to original sources.

Find more (excellent) information at ScienceAlert.com

Two Monkeys Named, Twenty To Go!

Two New Amazon Monkey Species Named
2002

Dutch scientist Marc van Roosmalen says he has also discovered 20 more species in the Amazon, which are as yet unnamed.

“This once again demonstrates how little we know about biodiversity. These are the 37th and 38th new primate species described since 1990,” said Conservation International’s President Russell Mittermeier, a co-author of the scientific descriptions.

Callicebus stephennashi is named for Stephen Nash, an artist at CI who has contributed to primate conservation though his scientific illustrations.

Callicebus bernhardi is named for the Netherlands’ Prince Bernhard, who established the Order of the Golden Ark award to honor conservationists. Both van Roosmalen and Mittermeier have received the Golden Ark.

One of the best ways to find new species is to visit remote villages and check out local pets.

At an annual Indian festival called Quarup, which brings together about 17 Indian tribes, van Roosmalen and Mittermeier watch the wrestling matches, join the festivities and take a look at the village pets, which “gives a cross-section of the local fauna,” says Mittermeier.

“I didn’t realize the Amazon was so poorly known until I started finding all these new animals,” van Roosmalen said. Since 1996 he has published accounts of five new species of monkeys. And, his backyard is a jumble of creatures unknown to science—monkeys hanging around, waiting to be named and have their lives documented in a scientific journal.

He has said that he will name the other discovered species after people who pay to help create nature reserves in the region.

–Note: The following articles are my sources, and continue the story of Van Roosmalen’s discoveries.

Read the entire National Geographic article here.
Read the Associated Press article here.
Visit Primates.com

Highest Altitude Primate in the World Discovered

December 17, 2004

Scientists have discovered a previously unknown monkey species in the mountains of India.

Christened the Arunachal monkey after the region in which it was found, it is the first new species of macaque identified since 1903.

Said one scientist about the discovery, “… few would have thought that with over a billion people and retreating wildlands, a new large mammal species would ever be found in India, of all places.”

Full article at Scientific American…

Brazil Yields Several New Species, and Surprises!

Scientists on a WWF expedition discovered two new frog, fish and bird species, one tree species and one primate.

“These are exciting discoveries,” said Claudio Maretti, WWF-Brazil’s Coordinator for Protected Areas.

“But to confirm that the species are really new to science we have to carry out a series of tests,” he cautioned. “This will be done as soon as the expedition comes to a close.”

In addition to these potentially new scientific discoveries, experts on the expedition came across 200 species of birds, ocelots (wild cats), and a pink dolphin.

Original full length article here…

Read expedition logs and other articles from the expedition at the WWF homepage for the Juruena National Park.

(Even More) New Lemurs Discovered!

June 26, 2006

Five years after they were actually discovered, three new lemurs have finally passed scientific muster. Researchers announced the formal classification of three types of mouse lemur: Microcebus mittermeieri, Microcebus jollyae, and Microcebus simmonsi.

Find the full article at National Geographic…

New Monkey GENUS Discovered in Africa

An update from BBC news- it’s a completely new GENUS!

original post:

New monkey species discovered in Africa

* 19:00 19 May 2005
* NewScientist.com news service
* Bob Holmes

A new monkey species genus related to the baboon has been found in the highland forests of Tanzania.

Lophocebus kipunji, the Highland Mangabey is one of three recently discovered and threatened species found in the Ndundulu Forest.
The monkey was discovered almost simultaneously by two research teams on separate mountain ranges and is the first new African monkey to be found in more than 20 years. It also instantly becomes one of the rarest and most critically endangered primates on Earth.

Find the full original article here…

Find a longer, more detailed article from the National Science Foundation here…

Look above for a link to the BBC news article announcing genus status.

New Species Surveyed in Tanzanian Mountains

WWF | Newsroom

First Field Surveys of Tanzanian Mountains Reveal over 160 Animal Species, including New and Endemic Species
For Release: 06/22/2006
WASHINGTON — The first field surveys of the Rubeho Mountains in Tanzania revealed over 160 animal species — including a new species of frog and eleven endemic species — according to an article published in the African Journal of Ecology this month. The findings elevate the importance of protecting this biologically-rich wilderness area and the broader Eastern Arc Mountain range from destructive activities underway such as clear-cutting for agriculture, logging and poaching.

More…

New Lemur Species Discovered

Photo in the News: New Lemur Species Discovered

From the National Geographic:

” You’re a good man, Microcebus lehilahytsara—quite literally. The German and Madagascan scientists who discovered the new lemur species named it for U.S. lemur expert Steve Goodman (”lehilahytsara” is Malagasy for “good man”). They announced the discovery of this and another new lemur species today.

Surprisingly, the scientists discovered Microcebus lehilahytsara not in some shrouded jungle but in one of the most studied rain forests on the African island of Madagascar. Then again, this good man is not much bigger than a big mouse, making Microcebus lehilahytsara all the more difficult to find.

About the size of a gray squirrel, the other new lemur species is also fairly wee, hence its name, Mirza zaza—”zaza” being Malagasy for “child.”…

The two new primate species are rare finds, bringing the total number of known lemur species to 49—all of which occur naturally only on Madagascar or the nearby Comoros islands. “

A different article from the BBC news website- dated August 2006.