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An elusive monkey feared extinct has shown up in the remote forests of Borneo , posing for the first full picture of the animal ever taken .
Themug shotsreveal a furry Count Dracula of sorts , with the scamp ’s black head , face tip off with white whiskers and a pointy leash made of fluffy blank fur .
A small group of Miller’s grizzled langurs, including a juvenile. These rare monkeys had been feared extinct.
The Miller ’s grizzled langur , an super uncommon prelate that has stick out from home ground passing over the last 30 years , come out up unexpectedly in the protected Wehea Forest in east Kalimantan , Borneo .
" We knew we had found this primate that some hoi polloi had muse waspotentially out , " said study investigator Stephanie Spehar , a primatologist at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh . " It was really exciting . "
But the animal is still in grave peril , Spehar told LiveScience , and no one knows how many of these langur are left . The research worker remark only two pocket-size groups of them .
A small group of Miller’s grizzled langurs, including a juvenile. These rare monkeys had been feared extinct.
Vanishing act
The diffident imp ( Presbytis hosei canicrus ) was seen in the seventies in Kutai National Park in Borneo , about 50 miles ( 80 kilometers ) from where the new universe lives . But as the geezerhood passed , fire andillegal loggingdevastated Kutai . By 2008 , the Miller ’s grizzled langur seems to have fly from the park . A survey that year found just five langurs live on the Sangkulirang Peninsula in East Kalitmantan , also about 50 miles ( 80 kilometer ) away from the fresh reveal langur habitat . But by 2010 , that grouping of primates had also disappeared .
" At this detail , we did n’t know if this animal still existed or whether it was still hiding out in niggling pockets , " Spehar say .
A Miller’s grizzled langur caught on camera.
Spehar has been working in the Wehea Forest of Borneo for four year , but she ’d never seen a Miller ’s grizzled langur there . Last summer , however , one of her undergraduate student camped out by a mineral lap area for 10 day , a spot where animal hail to get food from mineral - rich soil and water . The scholar , Eric Fell , was conducting his own research labor on animate being ' utilisation of these licks , and was photograph the animate being that dropped by . [ veranda : Elusive Wildlife Photos ]
Upon returning from his stakeout , Fell showed Spehar his photographs . Among them were images of long - bob , ignominious - headed langurs .
" I knew this was something special , " Spehar allege . " I know that it was something that was unexpected and we had n’t seen before . "
scamp reborn
Spehar , who credits the find to the piece of work of local communities and government that protect the forest and support her research , showed the photograph to another researcher working in the woods , the manager of the conservation organization Ethical Expeditions Brent Loken . The Revelation of Saint John the Divine surprised both parties : It turned out that Loken ’s mathematical group had also been staking out a mineral clout 5 miles ( 8 km ) by from Fell ’s with a motion - triggered camera . They ’d captured an range of a function of the same eccentric ofprimate . [ Video of the rapscallion ]
" We realized that we had basically rediscovered this animal , " Spehar said . Taxonomists confirmed the uncovering as a Miller ’s grizzled langur . The researchers reported their find today ( Jan. 20 ) in the American Journal of Primatology .
The simultaneous discovery suggest that there is a decent - size population of the langurs in Wehea , but Spehar cautioned that unbelievably little is known about the species . No one knows how wide the langur ' range is , she said , how many there are , or their universe density . That lack of cognition is n’t rare for many threatened species , according to Loken .
" This monkey represents a lot of species on the satellite that we eff very little about , " Loken tell LiveScience . " We do n’t know how many there are , we do n’t sleep together where they know , what ecologic necessity they ask to live , and unless we get some of that information chop-chop , some of these metal money could slip into extermination before we have intercourse anything about them , or even pull in that they ’re gone . "
While Wehea itself is a more than 98,000 - Akko ( 40,000 - hectare ) oasis of protection , it is surrounded by forest used for logging , thenar oil Plantation and mining — the same sort of human uses that presumablydrove the langur outof the habitats where they once thrived . Additionally , the woods is only protected by the local community , Loken said , not the central regime .
That ready the future of the Miller ’s grizzled langur very unsure , Spehar say . She and her colleague project to conduct further research into the scalawag ’s range of mountains and behavior to infer how in effect tosave it from extinction . Meanwhile , Loken ’s group and others are working to batten down extra protection for the forest .
" What we trust to do is to work with company and concessions and with local governments to secure this animal ’s protection , " Spehar say . " That ’s the only way we will assure that it does n’t melt . "
