Jan 11, 2012

First look at a rare ugly



Yeah, we usually try to have better pictures than that one. But this is a special occasion. These are the first pictures of a living Myanmar snub-nosed monkey.

We sort of met this monkey back in 2010 when its discovery was announced. But scientists had only found out about the species when a hunter brought them a dead one, so news stories were accompanied by a photo of a related species given a Photoshop dye job, to approximate the appearance of the new species in life.

The monkeys were well-known enough by the locals that they had a story about how to find them: They don't like to get rain in their sad, deformed-looking noses, because it makes them sneeze. So look for them when it's raining and follow the sound of the sneezes.

Scientists decided instead to set out camera traps, but there are so few of these monkeys in existence that they didn't actually hope for much. So these pictures are quite exciting, especially the ones that show that more of these exceedingly rare primates are being born:

Not great photographic art, sure, but great ugly animal news.

-Wombat(No Relation)

4 comments:

Adorably Dead said...

they look a bit more creepy than ugly.

Anonymous said...

This blog is too good. Nose collapsed from too much plastic surgery?

Anonymous said...

the michael jackson of monkeys?

Anonymous said...

"Nose collapsed from too much plastic surgery?"
-Or severe cocaine abuse.