Cacajao ayresii, a kind of uacari monkey, was unkown to science until recently (Image: Italo Mourthe)
If this monkey looks bewildered, it could be because of the excitement it has generated among biologists. A uacari monkey living in north-western Amazonia, it belongs to a species unknown to science until recently but is now named Cacajao ayresii in honour of Brazilian biologist Marcio Ayres, who pioneered field studies on uacaris.
Uacaris are traditionally associated with flooded forests on the margins of lowland rivers, but this one turned up in a mountainous area of the Pico de Neblina region on the Brazil-Venezuela…
