You would think that in 2026, we’d have a complete catalog of every large, loud mammal swinging through the trees. Primates aren't exactly microscopic. They scream, they shake branches, and they live in groups. Yet, scientists just announced the discovery of a bizarre, orange-lipped monkey hiding in the dense canopy of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Officially named Colobus congoensis—and known locally as the Likweli—it is only the fifth new monkey species identified in Africa over the last 75 years.
It does not just look strange with its neon-orange "lipstick" and mask-like face. It also makes an incredibly loud, pulsing roar punctuated by a wet snort.
This isn't just a fun curiosity for biology textbooks. The discovery, published in the journal PLOS One, completely upends what evolutionary biologists thought they knew about how primates dispersed across the African continent.
The Decadelong Game of Hide and Seek
The scientific journey to confirm the Likweli wasn't a sudden eureka moment. It was a painstaking, 18-year saga of blurry photos, skeptical peer reviews, and boots-on-the-ground detective work.
The story started in 2008. A research team led by the Lukuru Wildlife Research Foundation was surveying what would eventually become the Lomami National Park. Conservationist Ashley Vosper snapped a quick, blurry photo of a black monkey from behind. The backside looked unusual, but you can't describe a new species to science based on a single photo of a monkey's rear end.
So, the mystery sat on the back burner. The team's immediate focus shifted to describing another newly discovered primate from the same forest: the Lesula (Cercopithecus lomamiensis), which made headlines in 2012.
Fast forward to 2018. Local Congolese field researcher Jean Pierre Kapale spotted the elusive black monkey again. This time, he got clear, frontal shots. There it was: a primate with a glossy black coat, large folded ears, and unmistakable bright orange-cream skin surrounding its mouth and nose.
Kapale insisted to the scientific community that this was something entirely new. He was right.
To prove it, a massive collaborative effort was launched. Researchers from Florida Atlantic University, Yale, and the City University of New York spent four years trekking through the swampy, closed-canopy forests. They logged 114 separate sightings, mapped its tiny habitat, and analyzed DNA from tissue samples intercepted from the local bushmeat trade.
What Makes the Likweli So Strange?
If you ran into a Likweli in the wild, you'd immediately notice a few things that set it apart from any other primate.
The Clown Face and Sleek Coat
Colobus congoensis is a relatively small colobus monkey, weighing roughly 15 pounds (6.8 kilograms). While its body is covered in a sleek, light-reflecting black coat with long cape-like fur on its shoulders, its face is a theatrical production. It features:
- Bright orange-cream lips and nose patches that look like fresh paint against its otherwise dark face.
- Slate-grey cheekbones framed by long black whiskers, giving it an eerie, mask-like appearance.
- Large, highly folded ears.
- A stark white patch of fur directly under its tail.
The Sound of a House Music Bassline
The Likweli doesn't chatter or squeak. It roars.
According to researchers who spent years in the field, its vocalizations are deep, resonant booms that sound like a cross between a heavy burp and the deep bassline of a house music track. When alarmed—like during a recorded encounter where a group of ten Likweli fought off a crowned eagle—they erupt into rapid, repeating roars broken up by loud, distinct snorts.
The Watchers in the Canopy
Most monkeys in the Congo Basin bolt the second they spot a human. They know humans mean danger.
But the Likweli behaves differently. Junior Amboko, a co-author of the study and PhD student at Florida Atlantic University, noted that they are surprisingly calm and watchful. When researchers approached, the monkeys didn't panic. Instead, they climbed a bit higher into the dense canopy, sat still, and stared back. "It often feels as though we're studying each other," Amboko said.
The Evolutionary Mind-Bender
This is where the story gets highly technical—and highly controversial.
When the team sequenced the Likweli’s mitochondrial DNA, they expected it to be closely related to the Angolan colobus (Colobus angolensis), which lives in the exact same forests.
It wasn't.
Instead, genetic mapping showed the Likweli’s closest relative is the black colobus (Colobus satanas).
Here is the catch: the black colobus lives more than 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) away in the coastal forests of Cameroon, Gabon, and Bioko Island. There is an ocean of dense, continuous rainforest separating these two species, yet they are evolutionary sisters.
Even more shocking is the timeline. The genetic analysis reveals that the Likweli and the black colobus split from a common ancestor between 3.44 and 5.78 million years ago.
This represents the deepest, oldest evolutionary split ever recorded within the entire Colobus genus. It suggests that millions of years ago, a massive geological or climatic event—likely changing river paths or shifting forest boundaries—isolated a pocket of these ancestral black colobines in the heart of the Congo. While their western relatives evolved into the black colobus, this isolated central pocket became the orange-lipped, roaring Likweli.
Why Even the Locals Barely Knew It Existed
You might wonder how a loud, roaring monkey with neon lips could go unnoticed by the people living right next to it.
To find out how well known the animal was, the research team visited 52 villages surrounding the Lomami National Park. They showed photos of the monkey to local communities.
Shockingly, hunters from only eight of those 52 villages recognized the animal.
The Balanga people living west of the Lomami River knew it as "Likweli". Further away, the Mituku people called it "Kasaba Nkoni," which translates to "the branch shaker" because of the way it leaps through the high canopy. But the vast majority of locals had never seen or heard of it.
This extreme lack of local knowledge points to two facts: the Likweli is incredibly quiet and elusive when it wants to be, and it is restricted to an incredibly small geographic footprint.
Why the Likweli Is Already in Deep Trouble
While the discovery is a massive victory for science, the celebratory mood is cut short by a grim reality. The Likweli is likely already on the brink of extinction.
The species is incredibly specialized. It is restricted to a tiny patch of high, closed-canopy forest on deep clay soils wedged between the Lomami and Lilo rivers. Its entire known range is just 1,700 square kilometers (about 650 square miles). To put that in perspective, that is roughly half the size of Rhode Island.
Because of this tiny range, the research team estimate there may be fewer than 1,000 individual Likweli left in existence.
The threats are immediate:
- Human Encroachment: Between 2015 and 2023, at least 15 new villages were established within or right next to the buffer zone of Lomami National Park. As these settlements grow, the high-canopy forest the Likweli relies on is cut down for farming and fuel.
- The Bushmeat Trade: While hunters don't specifically target the Likweli because it is so rare and hard to find, they do set indiscriminate traps and hunt opportunistically. Several of the anatomical specimens used to confirm the species were actually salvaged from confiscated bushmeat piles.
Because of these compounding pressures, the scientists who described the monkey are urgently recommending that the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) immediately classify the Likweli as Endangered.
What We Do Next
The discovery of Colobus congoensis proves that we are still scratching the surface of what lives in the Congo Basin—the second-largest tropical rainforest on Earth. If a loud, 15-pound primate with bright orange lips can stay hidden from science until 2026, we have to assume there are countless other species on the verge of disappearing before we ever even know they exist.
If you want to help protect the Likweli and the pristine habitat of Lomami National Park, here is how you can take action:
- Support local conservation: Follow and support the Lukuru Wildlife Research Foundation, the organization that pioneered the creation of Lomami National Park and continues to fund the field teams protecting this habitat.
- Advocate for habitat protection: Support international organizations like the Frankfurt Zoological Society, which works directly with local Congolese park rangers to combat poaching and illegal logging in the region.
