With its bright yellow mane, you’d think this monkey would be hard to miss. But in fact it’s a species new to science – and only the second new species of African monkey to be discovered in the last 28 years.
Known locally as the lesula, it hails from the forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The first specimen was spotted tethered to a post outside a house in the town of Opala – a pet adopted by a young girl when its mother was killed by a hunter. The young monkey looked a lot like the owl faced monkey, but its coloration was different from any other known species. It had large eyes, a pink face and a golden throat.