Kipunji

The kipunji, Rungwecebus kipunji, also known as the highland mangabey, is an Old World monkey that lives in the highland forests of Tanzania. It was described independently in December 2003 and July 2004 and was the first new African monkey species found since 1984. First placed in the mangabey genus Lophocebus, it proved on genetic and body evidence to be closer to the baboons, and it was given its own genus, Rungwecebus, named for Mount Rungwe, the first new monkey genus described since 1923. The kipunji has long brown fur with a white tail tip and underside and a black face, hands and feet, and adult males are about 85 to 90 centimetres long and estimated at 10 to 16 kilograms. Its territorial call is a low honk-bark. About 1,800 animals survive in a few forest patches, mainly around Mount Rungwe and Kitulo National Park and in the Ndundulu forest, where logging, charcoal making and hunting threaten it. It is listed as Endangered.