December 16 2004 at 02:43PM
New Delhi - Scientists have discovered a new species of monkey in north-eastern India, 101 years after the last species of its kind was found, a member of the investigating team said on Thursday.
They have called it the Arunachal macaque (Macaca munzala), after the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh where it was found. The scientific name comes from its name in the local language -“mun zala” or deep-forest monkey.
The Arunachal macaque was observed and photographed for two years. It frequents the state’s mountainous districts of Tawang and West Kameng, has a stocky build and an unusually dark face, scientists said. It is also among the highest-dwelling primates in the world, living between 1 600-3 500m above sea level.
“The discovery is of tremendous significance for our understanding of this group of primates,” said Dr MD Madhusudan of the Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF) in the southern Indian city of Mysore.
‘We thought the age of exploration and discovery was over’
“It is also of great importance to our knowledge of Indian wildlife. We thought the age of exploration and discovery was over. But it clearly isn’t,” Madhusudan said.
“To think that we are such a populous country and are faced with the problem of losing forest cover. And then we make this discovery.”
Arunachal is a region with a rich bio-diversity and remarkable traditions of conservation, he said. “The macaque is merely a window into something bigger. This is a species we would have lost without even knowing that it existed. There are many others that need our care and protection,” Madhusudan said.
There are 19 macaque species in Asia and one in Africa, and they are said to be second only to human beings in their wide geographical distribution, a statement from NCF said.
The last macaque type to be identified, the Pagai macaque, was found in 1903 in Indonesia. In India the last mammal discovery, the golden langur, was 50 years ago, Madhusudan said.
‘It is not every day that a new species of monkey is found’
“It is not every day that a new species of monkey is found. While millions of invertebrates await discovery, biologists have described virtually all larger mammals, especially primates, in the world,” the statement said.
The discovery of the Arunachal macaque, to be published soon in the International Journal of Primatology, was made by a team comprising Madhusudan, Dr Anindya Sinha, Dr Aparajita Datta and Dr Charudutt Mishra.
The expeditions were conducted by NCF and its partners - Wildlife Conservation Society, New York, International Snow Leopard Trust, Seattle and National Institute of Advanced Studies, India.
The project was funded by the Van Tienhoven Foundation, the Netherlands and the Rufford Maurice Laing Foundation, United Kingdom. - Sapa-dpa
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