Popa langur

The Popa langur (Trachypithecus popa) is a species of primate in the family Cercopithecidae that occurs only in Myanmar. It is named after Mount Popa, where a population of about 100 of the monkeys lives, and it is listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List because the wild population is thought to comprise 200 to 250 mature individuals. It was recognised in 2020 through work in a laboratory rather than in the field: a phylogenetic study used fecal samples from wild langurs and tissue samples from museum specimens, and a comparison with a specimen of Phayre's langur at the Natural History Museum in London showed small differences in the skins, skulls and coloration. The animal has a dark-brown or grey-brown back, a white belly and black hands and feet, with distinctive white rings around the eyes and the muzzle, and it weighs around 8 kilograms. It lives in central Myanmar, mainly around Mount Popa, and is threatened by hunting, habitat destruction and fragmentation.