A shy, brightly colored monkey species has been found living in the lush rain forests at the heart of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a find that utterly surprised the researchers who came upon it. “When I first saw it, I immediately knew it was something new and different — I just didn’t know how significant it was,” said John Hart, a veteran Congo researcher who is scientific director for the Lukuru Wildlife Research Foundation, based in Kinshasa. In fact, the find was something of a happy accident. The image that caught his eye hadn’t been taken in the field. It was snapped in a village, and showed a young girl named Georgette with a tiny monkey that had taken a shine to the 13-year-old.
What is that?
It was a gorgeous animal, Hart said, with a blond mane and upper chest, and a bright red patch on the lower back. “I’d never seen that on any animal in the area, so right away I said, ‘Hmmm,’” he told Our Amazing Planet. Hart decided to get to the bottom of the mystery. Fast forward through five years of field work, genetic research and anatomical study, and on Wednesday, Hart and a list of collaborators formally introduced to the world a new primate species, dubbed Cercopithecus lomamiensis, and known locally as the lesula. Their work is announced in the online journal PLOS One. “For a big mammal to go unnoticed is pretty unusual,” said Kate Detwiler, a primatologist and assistant professor at Florida Atlantic University, and an author on the paper.
The trees tower overhead, blocking out the sun, and the forest floor — the chief domain of the lesula — is steeped in a permanent gloom. The forest is full of sounds. At first light, the lesulas raise a lilting chorus of booming calls, distinct from the cries of their monkey neighbors who pass their lives in the trees high above the forest floor; at dusk, the cries of African grey parrots echo through the canopy. The earth is wet and soft, and feet sink into the ground with each step. There is a gentle, steady thud as fruit falls from the trees.
Blue buttocks
The lesulas live in this isolated region in groups up to five strong, and feeds on fruit and leafy plants. The males weigh up to 15 pounds (7 kilograms), about twice the size of the females. They also have some rather arresting anatomical features. “They have giant blue backsides,” Hart said. “Bright aquamarine buttocks and testicles. What a signal! That aquamarine blue is really a bright color in forest under story.” “We don’t really know what this means because it’s very uncommon for monkeys in this lineage,” she added. The only other monkey to share this feature is the lesula’s closest cousin — the owl-faced monkey, a species that lives farther east. At first it was thought the monkeys were close kin, but genetic analysis suggests the two species split from a common ancestor about 2 million years ago.
What’s for dinner?
There’s a thriving market for bush meat, particularly in urban areas, Hart said, and the monkeys are just one of dozens of species, from snakes to elephants to apes, that are targeted. “People have disposable income, and this is the cheapest meat,” he said. “Bush meat is a go-to item because it’s less expensive than chicken or beef. This is not a new problem, but it’s a problem that doesn’t have a solution yet.” Hart and his wife, Terese, are partnering with local people to try to set up a national park in the lesulas’ territory, but it’s still a work in progress. In the meantime, researchers have set up camera traps in the dense forest to try to better understand the habits of the shy animals. “It was suspected that somebody in town had taken it in,” Hart said. “And it ended up in their cooking pot.”
