Lesula Monkey

This week, the International Institute for Species Exploration announced their annual top 10 new species. As the Guardian says, the list is a kind of scientific shock-and-awe campaign, shocking us at what we did not know about our own planet and leaving us in awe over the diversity, complexity, wonder and beauty of the living world.

Indeed, and this should serve as a reminder that we don't know what species remain undiscovered in Indonesia, and will never know as long as rampant land grabbing for palm oil plantations, mining and urbanisation continues apace.

Discovered in the Lomami Basin of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the lesula (Cercopithecus lomamiensis) is an Old World monkey well known to locals but newly known to science. This is only the second species of monkey discovered in Africa in the past 28 years. Scientists first saw the monkey as a captive juvenile in 2007. Researchers describe the shy lesula as having human-like eyes. More easily heard than seen, the monkeys perform a booming dawn chorus. Adult males have a large, bare patch of skin on the buttocks, testicles and perineum that is colored a brilliant blue. Although the forests where the monkeys live are remote, the species is hunted for bush meat and its status is vulnerable.
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View gallery of all ten species.