New monkey species discovered in Arunachal

A species of monkey previously unknown to science has been discovered in the remote northeastern region of India.

A species of monkey previously unknown to science has been discovered in the remote northeastern region of India, according to the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

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Named after the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh where it was found, the Arunachal macaque---a relatively large brown primate with a comparatively short tail---is described in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Primatology.

The last species of macaque to be discovered in the wild, the Indonesian Pagai macaque, was described in 1903.

"This new species comes from a biologically rich area that is perhaps India's last unknown frontier," said WCS conservation scientist M.D. Madhusudan, who was part of the discovery team that included the Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF), and its associates.

The Arunachal macaque (Macaca munzala) is the latest addition to the macaque family, a group with some 20 different species occurring mainly in Asia across a variety of different habitats.

The new species is also one of the highest-dwelling primates in the world, occurring between 1600 and 3500 meters above sea level.

Although the monkey is new to science, the animal is well known to the residents of the Himalayan districts of Tawang and West Kameng, where the species occurs.

The monkey's species name, mun zala, means "deep-forest monkey" in the vernacular of the Dirang Monpa people.