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Colobus congoensis lives in the Congo Basin rainforest. It has black hair and orange-cream lips (it's this that makes it stand out, if anything). It also has high cheekbones and sticky-out ears with distinctive notches. And now it's officially a new species. The discovery was formally published in the journal PLOS One on 15 July 2026, following almost two decades of detective work by primatologists. It is only the fifth new African monkey species to be recognised in the past 75 years.

The monkey was first photographed in 2008 in the remote forests of Lomami National Park, but the image was too indistinct to prove it was anything new. A second sighting in 2018 prompted a dedicated four-year study, during which researchers recorded 114 sightings, analysed its DNA, anatomy and distinctive roaring calls, and confirmed that it had been evolving separately from its closest relatives for millions of years.

And its closest relative? Well, it isn't particularly close geographically. Genetic evidence suggests it is most closely related to the Black Colobus (Colobus satanas) of west-central Africa. The two species are separated by more than 1,200 kilometres of rainforest, implying they diverged around 4–5 million years ago.

Of course, we can't really say it has been discovered. The people living near its habitat in the Congo Basin have known about it for generations. They call it Likweli. Researchers found that only a handful of local communities recognised the monkey, which says something about how restricted its range appears to be—and perhaps that it prefers to keep well away from us. Likweli has now been adopted as its common name, although the meaning of the word has not been published. Then again, ask most English speakers why a fox is called a fox, and you'll probably get little more than a shrug.

Watch this video by Florida Atlantic University to learn more about the research that went into recognising the Likewli as a new species of monkey.

It must have been an awe-inspiring sight – millions upon millions of passenger pigeons flying across the American landscape.  Forest-loving (and living) pigeons were never seen alone – they would flock and migrate from the southern forest to their breeding grounds in the north.  The size of the flocks was so large that they would darken the sky, destroy tree branches with their weight (roosting literally on top of each other) and leave behind a carpet of passenger pigeon poop.  And then, they were gone.

There had been between 3 and 5 billion passenger pigeons in the USA and in the space of just a few decades there was just one left (in a zoo).  This endling – the name given to the last member of a species was known as Martha.  This is not only her story, of course, but that of her entire species.

This is the story of yet another clash between humans and birds – another which led to the extinction of a species that was once so numerous it was uncountable.  The reason for the extinction of the passenger pigeon is not as simple as you might think – it’s more than just being hunted to extinction.  This fascinating video by Bizarre Beasts posits that it was the telegraph and the railway that finally did for this bird – as well as (ironically) its own particular survival strategy which, until our arrival, had served it well for thousands of years.

 
Out of the over 4,000 species of frogs on Planet Earth, around a third of them are considered to be at threat of extinction. Here, Guy Fenton takes us on a journey, exploring why frogs are so vital to our ecosystems.  Fenton also covers how frogs are helping scientists to create new innovations in the medical field.  Told from a non-scientific perspective, this short video speaks volumes about the importance of our amphibian friends.

One reason (apart from any species has a right to survive without forced extinction because of our actions) can be seen as purely selfish.  The frogs of this world may well turn out to be incredibly important to the future of our species.  So, conserving them in the wild so we can continue to learn from them is something that we should make every attempt to ensure.

Scientists, for example, are studying frog skins to see how the cells can be turned into new antibiotics.  As most of our current antibiotics are now becoming useless because of antibiotic resistance, these new ones are vital – urgent even.  More and more bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics – could frogs hold the secret to a new group of antibiotics?

Have a look at this video – it’s very short and you will (most likely) learn something.

The plight of the Asian Elephant is often overlooked.  However, when one considers the fall in its numbers in less than a century – from almost half a million to only three thousand, then the urgency of the issue begins to sink in.

Here, ProFilm looks at the plight of the Asian Elephant, with some history of its relationship with us and questions how things might be resolved for this most majestic of animals.

It was not so long ago that naturalists were predicting that the Water Vole would be extinct in the United Kingdom within a few years. Predation by the North American Mink, loss of habitat and pollution seemed to be the main culprits.

The much loved small mammal, immortalized in fiction as Ratty (left) in Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows, seemed destined for the history books.  It was given protected status as late as 2008 - a legislative moved considered by many to be too little too late.

Yet just a few years after their dire predictions it seems that the water vole is back from the brink, testimony to the help it has received from conservationists.

Thriving colonies of over two thousand now exist in several places in the UK. Less than ten years ago, surveys of the same places revealed only a scattering of water voles, less than twenty in each location.  If those numbers have made you raise an eyebrow you may not know just how fecund a water vole can be. Left to her own devices a female can produce up to thirty young in a season with up to eight baby voles per litter. So, what did the environmentalists do to aid such a dramatic come back for this semi-aquatic rodent?

A look at the Poitou donkey from South West France. 

Only thirty years ago, less than thirty of these beautiful and friendly animals were left. 

Now, thanks to a conservation programme, it looks as if the dreadlocked donkey is set to stay awhile on Planet Earth.

You are looking at pictures of an incredibly rare bird.  This is the Spoon-billed Sandpiper.  It is thought that less than one hundred and fifty breeding pairs are alive today.  In the next fifteen years this amazingly adapted bird may well slip quietly on to the ever increasing list of species whose extinction has been caused by humans.  

Yet if a group of bird experts succeed the spoon-billed sandpiper may pull back from the brink.

The times when you can pinpoint the actions that you made which changed your life forever are sometimes hard to pinpoint.  Not so for Australian conservationist and filmmaker Jase Kovacs and his partner Jolene, both of Team Labyrinth.  They sail around south east Asia, investigating ecological issues and bringing attention to small and underrepresented community conservation organisations.

During their journey they came across young Nico who had rescued an incredibly rare hawksbill turtle from his father’s fishing nets at Dahican Beach, Mindanao, Philippines.  So far, so good but the events which unravel over the next few days might actually make you believe in fate.

If you have ever watched a documentary about the migration of red crabs on Christmas Island from the forest back to the sea to spawn, then you have probably seen enough crab carcasses to last you a lifetime.

As the crabs made their way back to the ocean they would inevitably have to cross one of the island’s roads. In the past motorists would try to swerve to avoid them (or not!) but often the crabs were simply too numerous and accidents inevitably happened.

However, it is hoped that these days the number of crabs being squished and squashed will be massively reduced, thanks to the efforts of the amazing staff of Parks Australia. They have created a number of ingenious methods to ensure that as many crabs get to the sand and the sea as possible. Take a look at this interesting video to find out more.

We have never had movie time on Ark in Space, but this is a brilliant point at which to start. Directed by Dante Ariola, it tells the story of Dr Alan Rabinowitz – who is one of the leading experts on big cats in the world. We are shown his childhood and his visit to the Bronx Zoo in his youth: yet Alan was different as a child.

He had a major stutter which meant that he found difficulty in expressing himself to people. Yet like many stutterers he discovered that when he spoke to animals, it disappeared.

In this beautifully made short film (which should really be made in to a full length movie)we follow his life through his formative years and in to adulthood where he overcomes his stutter and finally gets to study jaguars in the wild.  Today Dr Rabinowitz is CEO of Panthera, a nonprofit organization devoted to saving the world’s wild cat species.  He has devoted his lifetime to charting the world’s last wild spaces, with the aim of preserving wild territories and safeguarding homes, on a massive scale, for many of the world’s most threatened mammals.

The Snow Leopard is known for its elusive nature and wildlife groups have been concerned for decades about their dwindling numbers.  Yet there is some good news – the species is, it seems, flourishing in one remote part of Afghanistan.

The war torn country is home to a vigorous population of snow leopards.  The World Conservation Society recently laid a number of camera traps in the Wakhan Corridor.  This mountainous area is a long panhandle in the north east of the country and the camera traps captured snow leopards on film in sixteen places.

This is a remarkable turn out of events as it has been estimated that there are only around seven thousand snow leopards in the world, scattered across a dozen countries in Central Asia.  Their habitat is usually over 10,000 feet above sea level but even at these heights snow leopards are often killed by shepherds for harrying their flocks.

That isn’t the last of their worries either.  Many of these fuzzy-tailed felines are caught and sold by the illegal pet trade.  Then there is the Chinese problem.  Their bones and penises are in high demand by the bourgeoning middle classes of China.  It is believed that ingestion of their body parts increase sexual performance in humans.


Panthera uncial is considered one of the most endangered of the big cats.  Their numbers have fallen by twenty percent over the last twenty years.  You do not need to be Einstein to calculate that the species does not have long unless something is done.

The goal of the World Conservation Society is to make sure that these wonderful beasts have are protected and have a future in Afghanistan.  A reservation has been proposed by the society so that the snow leopards of the Wakhan Corridor, which has borders on Tajikistan, Pakistan and – oh dear – China, can be legally and forcefully protected.

Although it has always been known that snow leopards inhabit this remote part of Afghanistan there was concern that the population had been severely depleted.  As the wars of the last thirty years have impoverished the population it was thought that their patience with a predatory big cat, however endangered, would precipitate wider hunting. 

This it seems has not been the case. Fortunately the Wakhan Corridor is one of the few places in Afghanistan which has been troubled by insurgency and civil unrest.

Yet there is a lot of work to be done. At the moment the society is doing its best to train rangers and provide education around conservation.  Other help has been to provide locals with corrals which are predator-proof and to start up a compensation scheme to reimburse farmers whose stock is predated by the leopards.

The society has not put an exact number on the amount of snow leopards in the corridor but maintain that their status still remains highly endangered.  After all, a world population which only numbers in the thousands cannot be considered safe if a new enclave of the species is discovered.

It would be a shame if the dramatic peaks of the wild and desolate Wakhan Corridor, this thin strip of land just over two hundred miles in length, turned out to be the last refuge of one of the planet’s animal marvels.

The Ark in Space would like to point out that the pictures used in this article were not taken in Afghanistan.  We don’t want to pull any wool over your eyes! The Afghanistan pictures are copyright the World Conservation Society and cannot be reproduced here.  However, we do hope that you have enjoyed the ones featured!