The new species is named Popa langur, after the extinct Pope volcano.It is there that the largest population of these
Scientists have found out that this species of Popa langur has existed for at least a million years.
But, with only 200 to 250 individuals left in the wild today, experts recommendclassify the species as "endangered".
"The Popa langur just described is already on the verge of extinction," the senior author confirmed in an interview with AFPFrank Momberg of Flora & Fauna International (FFI) in Yangon.
According to him, the new species is threatened by hunters and habitat loss.
The first evidence of the existence of a new species was not found in the wild, but in the back rooms of the London Museum of Natural History.
Scientists identified a new species of primate by genetic analysis of fecal samples.They were collected more than a century ago, when Myanmar was Burma, a British colony.
"Additional protection measures and field studies are urgently needed to save langurs fromdisappearances," said Ngwe Luin, a primatologist with the FFI program in Myanmar.
Now there are more than 20 species of langurs in the world, some of them are also on the verge of extinction.
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