A Photoshop reconstruction of the new snub-nosed monkey, based on a Yunnan snub-nosed monkey and a carcass of the newly discovered species. Credit: Thomas GeissmannAlmost by definition, species unknown to science are often tough to track down. But researchers seeking out a new species of primate in northern Myanmar were assured by locals that the monkeys aren't hard to find at all. You just have to wait for it to rain.
The new species, a previously unknown type of snub-nosed monkey dubbed Rhinopithecus strykeri, has a nose so upturned that the animals sneeze audibly when it rains. To avoid inhaling water, the monkeys supposedly sit with their heads tucked between their knees on drizzly days, according to local hunters.
The discovery, reported today (Oct. 26) in the American Journal of Primatology, was made by biologists from the Myanmar Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association and primatologists from Fauna and Flora International and the People Resources and Biodiversity Foundation.
The research team was working on a survey of gibbons in northeastern Myanmar in early 2010 when villagers told them about a monkey with an odd nose and prominent lips. Based on the descriptions, the researchers suspected the locals were seeing snub-nosed monkeys, threatened primates previously found only in China and Vietnam.
Intrigued, the team investigated further, surveying field sites and interviewing local villagers. The monkeys were well-known in the area, with villagers in 25 of 33 locations reporting monkey sightings. Several hunters provided skulls and hides from the monkeys, which have now been placed in museum collections in Switzerland and Myanmar.
After studying the specimens, the researchers realized they had a new species on their hands. The monkeys are about 21 inches (55 centimeters) long from upturned nose to rump, but their 30-inch (78 cm) tails more than double their length. Their fur is black with white ear tufts. Except for their white moustaches, the monkeys' faces are bare and pink.
The villagers in the area call the monkeys “myuk na tok te” or “mey nwoah,” both names meaning "monkey with an upturned nose," the researchers write. The monkeys themselves live in a mountainous area separated from other species by two rivers. Their range is probably no more than 167 square miles (270 square kilometers), and they likely number no more than 330. That makes the newly discovered monkey critically endangered by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) standards.
The monkeys are especially threatened by planned dam construction and logging roads in their habitat, the researchers report.
New monkey found in Myanmar near China dam project
* Snub-nosed monkey prone to sneezing in the rain
* Species endangered because of hunting, scientists say
Alister Doyle, Reuters AlertNet 27 Oct 10;
OSLO, Oct 27 (Reuters) - A new type of snub-nosed monkey has been found in a remote forested region of northern Myanmar which is under threat from logging and a Chinese dam project, scientists said on Wednesday.
They said hunters in Myanmar's Kachin state said the long-tailed black monkey, with white-tufted ears and a white beard, could often be tracked in the rain because its upturned nostrils made it prone to sneezing when water dripped in.
"It's new to science. It's unusual to travel to a remote area and discover a monkey that looks unlike any other in the world," Thomas Geissmann, lead author of the study at the University of Zurich-Irchel, told Reuters.
Studies of a carcass and four skulls showed the monkey differed from snub-nosed monkeys in China and Vietnam. The experts had no photos of a live Myanmar monkey.
The scientists estimated there were between 260 and 330 of the monkeys living in an area of about 270 sq km (100 sq miles) and believed the species to be critically endangered.
"The hunting pressure is likely to increase considerably in the next few years as new dam construction and logging roads invade" the monkeys' habitat, they wrote in the American Journal of Primatology.
IN CHINESE HANDS
"The future of the snub-nosed monkey lies in Chinese hands," said Frank Momberg, of Fauna and Flora International and a co-author of the study. Monkeys were hunted for meat or fur and their body parts were used in traditional medicines in China.
He said China Power Investment Corp., leading the dam project further down the valley on a tributary of the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar, had an economic interest in preserving the forested region where the monkeys live.
More roads and logging would cause erosion around the watershed that could clog up the new reservoir with silt, reducing power generation, he said. He praised China for carrying out a study of the dam's possible effect on the environment.
The discovery of the snub-nosed monkey contrasts with a rising trend of extinctions, caused by factors such as land clearance, expansion of cities, pollution and climate change.
A U.N. conference in Nagoya, Japan, this week is looking at ways to safeguard biological diversity after the world failed in a goal set in 2002 of a "significant reduction" in the pace of extinctions of animals and plants by 2010.
A separate study in the journal Science showed growing numbers of the world's birds, mammals and amphibians had moved closer to extinction in recent decades. A fifth were classified as threatened.
For Reuters latest environment blogs, click on: http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/ (Editing by Andrew Dobbie)