New species found, ZSI to push for its inclusion in Wildlife Protection Act

kolkata: A group of scientists from Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) has discovered a new species of primate, White Cheeked Macaque, from Arunachal Pradesh.

The mammal was first discovered by Chinese scientists from South Eastern Tibet in 2015. Till now, its existence was not confirmed in India. White Cheeked Macaques are distinct from other macaques found in the region having white cheeks, long and thick hair on the neck area and a longer tail.

An NGO named Aranyak has made its photographic capture from Anjaw in Arunachal Pradesh in 2015 which was barely 200 km aerial distance from where it was first spotted in China. However, since then there was neither any sighting nor capture nor encounter or any evidence of the primate, which made everybody doubtful of its existence.The ZSI team was searching for red pandas in Central Arunachal when they unknowingly stumbled upon a few faecal samples which on DNA analysis revealed to be White Cheeked Macaque."Now after extensive survey, we have multiple evidences that includes two skin samples and a juvenile White Cheeked Macaque that was found in the house of a local villager that confirms our discovery," ZSI scientist Mukesh Thakur, who led the study said. He added that ZSI will not only push for its inclusion in Wildlife Protection Act but will take up long term monitoring to demarcate its distribution boundary and population size."It is very rare in present days when a mammal species is discovered. The discovery of smaller animals like amphibians and insects are quite common," Thakur said. The discovery has been published in the international journal "Animal Gene."