New White Monkey Form Discovered
Posted by: Loren Coleman on September 12th, 2011
September 11th saw the announcement of the discovery of a new kind, type, form, perhaps subspecies, morph, but most likely not a new species of monkey in Sri Lanka’s rainforest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsukachRVQw
The members of Galle Wildlife Conservation Association say that they have identified a new species of white monkeys from Sri Lanka’s World Heritage site of Sinharaja rain forest.
The researchers have confirmed that the new species was not an albino of the common black monkey found in Sinharaja forest.
Chairman of Galle Wildlife Conservation Association Madura de Silva said that they traced this white monkey species in several places in the southern region of the Sinharaja forest during a survey conducted with the assistance of the Biodiversity Unit of the Ministry of Environment.
The group issued the photos of the white monkeys they took following the information from the treacle tappers in the border villages of Sinharaja.
The research team has observed 26 monkey troops in the rain forests and home gardens around Galle and Matara districts and found 30 individuals with unusual white color in 14 troops.
The group comprising Madura de Silva, Nadika Hapuarachchi and P.A. Rohan Krishantha, reports that the white monkey is a color morph of the southern purple faced leaf langer and systematic DNA testing is needed to determine subspecies and form accurate maps of locations. Source
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That is just cool. And cute. Very interesting.
The article seems to contradict itself: first, stating they had ID’d a “new species of white monkey” that was “not an albino (form) of the common black monkey.” However it then goes on to indicate that the white monkeys did not comprise a separate troop – rather, only white individuals scattered among the various normally-colored family groups.
Moreover, there doesn’t seem to be much conjecture regarding the species; identified at the end of the article as the Southern Purple Faced Leaf Langer.
While interesting from the point of not-having-seen-one-that-looks-like-this-before, the past several days have shown us that white, non-albino, color variants of known species are really not all that rare.