Scientists working in the dense jungles of Indonesia have "rediscovered" a large, grey monkey so rare it was believed by many to be extinct.
They were all the more baffled to find the Miller's Grizzled Langur - its black face framed by a fluffy, dracula-esque white collar - in an area well outside its previously recorded home range.
The team set up camera traps in the Wehea Forest on the eastern tip of Borneo island in June, hoping to capture images of clouded leopards, orangutans and other wildlife known to congregate at several mineral salt licks.
The pictures that came back caught them all by surprise: groups of monkeys none had ever seen.
With virtually no photographs of the grizzled langurs in existence, it at first was a challenge to confirm their suspicions, said Brent Loken, a PhD student at Simon Fraser University in Canada, and one of the lead researchers.
The only images out there were museum sketches.
"We were all pretty ecstatic, the fact that, wow, this monkey still lives, and also that it's in Wehea," said Loken.
The monkey, which has hooded eyes and a pinkish nose and lips, once roamed the northeastern part of Borneo, as well as the islands of Sumatra and Java and the Thai-Malay peninsula. But concerns were voiced several years ago that they may be extinct.
Forests where the monkeys once lived had been destroyed by fires, human encroachment and conversion of land for agriculture and mining, and an extensive field survey in 2005 turned up empty.
"For me the discovery of this monkey is representative of so many species in Indonesia," Loken told The Associated Press by telephone.
"There are so many animals we know so little about and their home ranges are disappearing so quickly," he said. "It feels like a lot of these animals are going to quickly enter extinction."
What do you think should be done with an animal like this?
Please use complete sentences and don't forget spell check!
I think that the animals should be put somewhere special and not a loud to be harmed.
ReplyDeleteI think that they should be put somewhere that they can be safe and unharmed and can reproduce.!!
ReplyDeletei believ they should be p;rotected and some put in another location for repopulation.
ReplyDeleteI think they should do something like keep them in a home and breed them if they can with there own kind so then the population will increase if not then breed them to the closest animal to it so the outcome would not be a big difference from the original animal because that's what they do with endangered animals so there population will increase.If they leave it were it is it wont last that long since it is one the only left of its breed.So its out come wouldn't be the same.
ReplyDeleteI think the monkeys should be put in a type of protective holding facility. This way the monkeys won't be harmed and the human population will be able to adapt to the new species.
ReplyDeleteThey should be protected.
ReplyDeletei think they should be protected in captivity
ReplyDeleteThey should be placed somewhere special. Like have its own home.
ReplyDeleteThey should be put in a facility and studied closely.
ReplyDeleteThey Need To Be Seperate from The Rest.
ReplyDelete