New Delhi : A stocky monkey with an unusually dark face, so far hidden from the scientific world, has been discovered by Indian wildlife scientists in Arunachal Pradesh's Tawang and West Kameng districts.They say this new find comes more than a century after the last new primate species was reported.

           The scientists propose to call it the Arunachal macaque (Macaca munzala)It is, they say, commonly referred to as  the munzala or monkey of the deep forest by tribals there.

            This monkey, never reported, or in scientific parlance, described before, is apparently familiar to locals as an animal that occasionally raids their fields but stays largely in the forest.Scientists found a "fairly large population" - about 14 groups - at heights of about 3,000 metres, unusual for monkeys.Most exploration in the north-east has remained restricted to the low and mid-elevation habitats.