New Monkey Found in Amazon

Tamarins are a small New World monkey, noted for their colourful, silky coats and strange hairstyles

A new type of long-tailed monkey has been discovered in the remote reaches of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest. The new monkey, which was first spotted in 2007 in the northwestern state of Amazonas, is related to the saddleback tamarin, a species known for distinctive markings on its back. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) researchers have named the subspecies Mura’s saddleback tamarin (Saguinus fuscicollis mura) after the Mura Indians who inhabit the area. The researchers published their findings in the June online edition of the International Journal of Primatology. The small monkey is mostly grey and brown. It has distinctive mottling on its back, and weighs around 213 gm. It is 240 mm tall and has a tail that measures 320 mm. “This newly described monkey shows that even today there are still major wildlife discoveries to be made,” said the study’s lead author, Fabio Rohe, of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society. WCS researchers have discovered several new monkey species in recent years: the Arunachal macaque, discovered in India in late 2004; and the Madidi monkey and Kipunji discovered in Bolivia and Tanzania respectively in 2005. In 2008, Jean Boubli, who now works for WCS, discovered a new species of uakari monkey in the Amazon and named it after noted WCS primatologist José Márcio Ayres.

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