---
title: "A new monkey with orange lips and a frog-like roar is found in Congo"
description: "Scientists have described a striking new monkey species in the rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo: a mostly black colobus with a vivid orange patch around its mouth and a deep, frog-like call. It is only the fifth new African monkey species named in 75 years."
category: "Science"
category_url: https://newsparlor.com/category/science
author: "James Whitmore"
published: 2026-07-15T19:32:00.000Z
updated: 2026-07-15T19:32:00.000Z
canonical: https://newsparlor.com/article/new-colobus-monkey-species-congo
tags: ["science", "primates", "biodiversity", "congo", "conservation"]
---
# A new monkey with orange lips and a frog-like roar is found in Congo

Scientists have described a striking new monkey species in the rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo: a mostly black colobus with a vivid orange patch around its mouth and a deep, frog-like call. It is only the fifth new African monkey species named in 75 years.

Deep in the forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo, researchers have confirmed a new species of monkey, a small, largely black colobus with a bright orange patch of bare skin around its mouth and an unexpectedly deep, resonant call.

The animal, given the scientific name Colobus congoensis and known to local communities as the "likweli", is described in a study [published in the journal PLOS ONE](https://phys.org/news/2026-07-species-monkey-unusual-orange-lips.html). Researchers say it is only the fifth new species of African monkey to be formally described in the past 75 years, a reminder of how much remains unknown even about relatively well-studied groups of animals.

## A discovery years in the making

The trail began with a single photograph taken in 2008 in Lomami National Park, capturing an unfamiliar-looking monkey. The lead might have faded had a local field researcher, Jean Pierre Kapale, not encountered the animal again in 2018 and documented it repeatedly. His observations helped persuade scientists that this was something genuinely new, prompting a fuller investigation of its anatomy, behaviour and genetics by teams including researchers from Florida Atlantic University and the Lukuru Wildlife Research Foundation, [according to Mongabay](https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/07/new-colobus-monkey-likweli-confirmed-in-drc/).

## What sets it apart

The likweli is a modest-sized primate, almost entirely dark but for its distinctive face, where a patch of pinkish-to-orange bare skin frames the mouth, set off by grey skin on the cheeks. Like other colobus monkeys, it lacks thumbs, an adaptation for swinging through the trees. Most surprising is its voice: a deep call likened to a frog's croak, unusual among its relatives, and made all the more arresting by the flash of orange around the mouth as the animal roars.

Genetic analysis suggests the likweli split from the related black colobus millions of years ago, a long-separate lineage that had simply gone unrecognised by science until now.

## Newly found, already at risk

The celebration of the discovery comes with a warning. The monkey appears to occupy only a small range, between two rivers in the region, and researchers estimate there may be fewer than a thousand of them. With their forest home under pressure from logging and hunting, the scientists behind the study have recommended that the species be classified as endangered.

The find is a vivid illustration of a wider truth: that the world's rainforests still hold species unknown to science, and that some may be identified only as the forests, and the animals within them, come under growing threat.