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Fringey Mini: Good news there's a new monkey · Journey to the Fringe

• 0:00
  Okay, Chelsea, I'm tired of being the doom and
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  gloom person. I found some fun story that we
• 0:06
  can do. Oh, I love that. So this came from the
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  BBC, written four days ago, which would make
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  it July 15th, 2026, written by Victoria Gill.
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  Article title, New Monkey Species with Orange
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  Lips Found Hiding in DR Congo, Democratic Republic
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  of Congo Forest. So they discovered a cryptid.
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  I need to look at this monkey. Oh, he's a beautiful
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  little guy. I can just share my screen real quick.
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  Oh, I'm looking at him. Wow. He is beautiful.
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  They're really orange lips and like the rest
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  of him is all black. He's adorable. I love this
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  monkey. A monkey that has a striking pinkish
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  orange lip. And blackface and lives in the forests
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  of the Democratic Republic of Congo has been
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  confirmed as a new species to science. The Blackford
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  primate was spotted and photographed hidden away
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  in the high tree canopy of dense tropical forests
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  in Lomami National Park in the central east of
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  the country. Conservationists working there first
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  reported seeing this unusual looking animal back
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  in 2008, but they captured just one blurry photograph.
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  After another sighting, 10 years later, an international
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  team set out to find and study the monkey and
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  revealed that it was a previously unknown species.
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  This is only the fifth African monkey species
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  to be discovered in the last 75 years. That is
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  wild. Yeah, that's crazy. Junior Amboko, a PhD
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  student at Florida Atlantic University, played
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  a leading role in the search, which involved
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  audio recordings, photography, and detailed genetic
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  studies. Findings were published in the journal
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  PLOS One. Amboko told BBC News it was an amazing
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  feeling to look into the face of an animal that
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  so few people knew existed. See, I don't know.
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  There's nothing special about those eyes, but
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  man, those lips. Just looking at those lips.
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  Look at those lips. Discovering a species in
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  this context means officially recording and confirming
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  it has evolved to be genetically distinct. Some
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  local people already knew of the monkey's existence
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  and refer to it by a common name, Liquele. But
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  Mboko said the monkeys were kind of shy and tended
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  to hide in the high trees. Quote, as part of
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  our search, we interviewed people in 52 villages
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  close to where the animals live, and only people
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  in eight villages had ever seen them, end quote,
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  he recalled. A research team from DR Congo, the
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  US, and Germany gave the animal the Latin name
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  Colobus Conguinus in recognition of the natural
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  diversity in the country. It belongs to the larger
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  group of Colobus monkeys. quote, there are really
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  important African monkeys that don't have thumbs,
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  end quote, explained Professor Kate Detweiler
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  from Florida Atlantic University. Quote, there
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  are these herbivores of the canopy that are a
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  critical part of the ecosystem. We think they
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  have a lot to do with the processing of seeds
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  and germination in the forest, end quote. Professor
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  Detweiler speculates that their unusual, bright
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  facial markings could be a visual signal to other
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  animals, potentially attractive to a mate or
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  that it would allow the animals to identify each
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  other. Monkeys also have distinctive roaring
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  calls. Quote, you often hear them, but you don't
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  see them, end quote, said Amboko. They think
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  the animals are rare and restricted to a part
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  of the forest where they can find food and habitat
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  they need. The animals are hunted for meat, so
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  the researchers hope that now that Colobus conguensis
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  is classified as a distinct species, it can be
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  officially protected. The researchers say they
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  will still have a lot of questions about this
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  newly described secretive species. They plan
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  to carry out a more detailed survey to estimate
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  their population and study their behavior. That's
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  the end of the article. Chelsea, what do you
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  think? I think a lot of things. First of all,
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  I'd like to compliment how he has no hair around
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  his eyes. It almost looks like he's wearing a
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  reverse raccoon is what I would call it. Oh,
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  that's fair. He's like bald around it. I'm loving
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  that. Second of all, this just reminds me so
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  much of Mokele. In so many ways. I was thinking
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  that, too, was actually going to come up, that,
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  yeah, this is, like, this is Mokele and Bembe's
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  area that you would be in. Doesn't it, the way
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  they're describing it, though, if you were to
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  replace the monkey's name with Mokele. In the
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  high trees, and it shits out seeds for the entire
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  environment. But, like, that they hunted it for
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  meat, and, like, they knew it was there, but,
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  like, nobody could prove it. Yeah, no, I agree
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  with that. And everything, the whole time I was
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  just thinking this could be Mokele Mbembe. Because
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  he was a cryptid. He is a cryptid. He was a cryptid,
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  yeah. And the crazy thing is, is the first time
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  scientists even had an idea that it was there,
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  it took them 18 years from that point to say
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  it was a species. Yeah, exactly. And there's
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  people probably talking about it because they're
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  like, you know, this one monkey with... the orange
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  lips is delicious. And yeah, no, they very clearly
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  said that. It does not exist. You are crazy,
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  my friend. You go away and just don't worry about
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  what you're eating. Exactly. Like this could
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  have been Mokile. And so it gives me hope that
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  Mokile, well, he's a dinosaur ghost. Both is
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  real and is delicious. I think we're all fairly
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  in agreement with this podcast. Sorry, if you
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  disagree with this comment, let me know. But
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  dinosaurs, particularly Mokelian Bembe, and sauropods
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  in general, would be delicious. I just think
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  they would. If you're a meat eater. I do disagree,
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  though. And I know I'm a vegetarian. However,
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  I just feel like he would be sour. but like we
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  eat crocodile and it tastes like chicken apparently
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  i can't say i've ever had crocodile but people
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  eat it and they like it i just feel like mochile
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  would be sour i don't okay i don't know how to
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  fight that off because we're talking very hypothetical
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  at this point you can't refute it but did you
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  think it wasn't do you ever think of that anyhow
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  that's all i got That's all I got, too. This
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  is kind of hard. And hey, why is Smokelli and
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  Bembe sour? You tell us. You've got 48 hours
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  to figure it out. Yeah. Bye. Bye. Woo, woo, woo,
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  woo.