2 min readJul 17, 2026 06:15 AM IST First published on: Jul 17, 2026 at 06:15 AM ISTIf a monkey croaks in a forest, with no humans to hear it, does it even exist? Five million years ago, the recently classified Colobus congoensis split from the common ancestor of its closest simian relative. It was only in 2008 that researchers captured blurry photos of the reclusive, yellow-lipped monkey that makes a croaking sound at the Lomami National Park in Congo. People from the Balanga ethnic group call the animal — roughly the same size as a rhesus monkey — Likweli, and after years of study and genetic testing, it has now been classified as a new species.Its population, habits and social life will likely occupy zoologists for years to come. The question, though, is whether the Likweli monkey was better off “undiscovered”. There is, of course, a chance that the classification of the new species will help conserve it, that knowing it’s there may prevent hunting and habitat destruction. Human beings, though, don’t have the best record in this regard.AdvertisementSince the age of European colonial expansion, indigenous populations of entire continents have been all but wiped out by the excesses of “discovery”. Animals, once classified, enter the language of the creatures that have destroyed so many of them: They will be “conserved” till, perhaps, some rare mineral or the strategic imperative of a nation-state — far younger than the five-million-year life of the Likweli as a species — makes them part of a utilitarian calculus in which they are simply a variable on a ledger. Meanwhile, let’s hope the mysterious new cousin in the simian family croaks away without interruption or interference from its dominating relative.