Lesula Monkey

Lesula is a recently discovered monkey species found in remote forests to be discovered in Africa in 28 years in 2012. Lesula (Cercopithecus lomamiensis) has a naked face and a mane of long blond hairs. It lives on the ground and in trees in a 6,500 square mile habitat of the lowland rainforests in the centre of the DRC between the middle Lomami (the inspiration for its name) and the upper Tshuapa Rivers. Its diet is mostly fruit and vegetation.

The monkey lives mostly in small groups of one to five, and only one animal was seen on its own during eight encounters. The researchers have provisionally categorised it as already vulnerable under the authoritative IUCN red list of threatened species. The last monkey to be discovered in Africa was the Kipunji (Rungwecebus kipunji) in Tanzania in 2003, nearly two decades after the last find, the sun-tailed monkey (Cercopithecus solatus) in Gabon, in 1984.