According to a report published online in the August 12 edition of the journal Primate Conservation, a research team from the National University of Colombia has discovered 13 groups of a new Amazon monkey species, which has been dubbed ‘Callicebus caquetensis’, because the monkeys were found in the southern state of Caqueta, near Peru.

As per the report, the red-bearded monkeys of the Callicebus caquetensis species – which is a kind of ‘titi’ monkey – were first glimpsed by a scientist way back in the 1960s; but due to political strife in the Caquetá Province, scientists had to stay away till 2008, when a research team finally corroborated the existence of the bearded monkey as a new species.

The newly-discovered species of Amazon monkeys has a red, bushy beard, grayish-brown hair, and almost the same size as a cat. They are different from other types of ‘titi’ monkey species in the sense that they lack of a white bar on the forehead.

The discovery of the Callicebus caquetensis species in the Colombian section of the Amazon rain forest was announced by Conservation International, a group that provided finance for the research in the remote forests.

With the research team also noting that the small, isolated population of the Callicebus caquetensis species of monkeys may be critically endangered because of extensive deforestation, Juan Mayer, an ex-Colombian environment minister, said that “huge efforts will have to be made to protect the creature's habitat.”