Scientists never know what they’ll find when they’re out exploring. This time, they came face-to-face with a never before seen primate.
Photograph by Adriano Gambarini
Published March 23, 2015
In 2011, scientist Julio Dalponte was looking for animals in the Amazon rain forest in Brazil, a country in South America. That's when he noticed an unusual monkey with a reddish-orange tail "like a blaze," he says. Turns out he and his team had discovered a brand-new species of monkey, now named Milton's titi monkey.
MONKEY BUSINESS
Milton's titi monkeys live in small family groups. The fruit-eating, 3.3-pound (1.5-kilogram) primates spend a lot of time grooming each other and sometimes sit next to one another on branches with their tails entwined.
Dalponte and his team were sometimes able to find the primates hiding in the forest canopy by playing back recordings of their vocalizations, which are some of the most complex in the animal kingdom. Then they'd listen for their replies from the trees.
STUCK IN PLACE
Because these monkeys can't swim well or cross mountainous terrain, they're stuck in the small region where they live. Dalponte says it’s too soon to tell if these monkeys are endangered. But for now scientists are just happy to see them hanging out.
Text from "New Titi Monkey Found: Fire-Tailed, With Sideburns" by Mary Bates for National Geographic News
Adapted by Rose Davidson, NGS Staff
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By Mary Bates, National Geographic News
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