A new primate was discovered in Angola, it is called the Angolan dwarf galago. The discovery was announced in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology in February 2017. It lives in the Angolan Jungle, and was found because of the loud noises it makes. It is a squirrel like creature, it is in the bushbaby family, a small primate family scattered about Africa. This animal is six inches long, making it the biggest among all the other family. Although this discovery was a great news, scientists quickly figured out that their discovery is in danger, for its habitat is getting destroyed.

The Angolan dwarf galago is a nocturnal animal, and was found because of the loud noises it makes. It is a loud, chirping crescendo of longer notes, followed by a twitter, this call is used as a mating call and to scare off other animals. The scientists that discovered the primate went out at night and looked throughout the jungle using their ears in hope to find one of these creatures. The scientists would record the calls whenever they could pick them up in the noisy jungle.

The discovery is very exciting, this is only the fifth new primate discovered in Africa since 2000, and only the second species of galago. Although this is exciting news, their habitat is getting wiped away by the increasing population and large-scale resource extraction. The scientists hope to return to see how endangered this species is, but as a scientist said, “It is worrying that a species we’ve only just discovered could well disappear within the next few years, it might have gone completely unnoticed.”