Blurry photos are often held up as supposed evidence of elusive creatures like Nessie and Bigfoot. But the subject of a fuzzy photo taken nearly two decades ago in remote forests of Congo – a strange, orange-faced monkey – has turned out to be the real deal. Now, it has officially been recognized as a new species, only the fifth new African monkey described in the past 75 years.
In 2008, a team of researchers from the Lukuru Wildlife Research Foundation spotted an unusual monkey high in the treetops of a rainforest now part of Lomami National Park in Congo. But the photograph they managed to snap was blurry.
“Since it wasn’t a clear picture, no one paid attention,” said Junior D. Amboko, a doctoral student at Florida Atlantic University and an author of a paper in the journal PLOS One describing the new species.
A decade later, the mystery monkey came into sharper focus. Another field team took a photo of a medium-size monkey with shaggy black hair and an orange-colored patch around its nose and mouth. They shared the photos with Amboko and John Hart, scientific director of the Lukuru Wildlife Research Foundation. It was clear that it didn’t resemble any known species in the area.
The researchers established a project, funded in part by the National Geographic Society, to find the peculiar primate. From 2018 to 2022, they surveyed Lomami National Park and its surrounding area, scanning the treetops, recording monkey calls at dawn and interviewing residents of 52 nearby villages. People at eight of those villages recognized the orange-mouthed monkey. Those from the Balanga ethnic group called it Likweli.
