A monkey that was thought to have died out more than 50 years ago has been discovered alive in the remote rain forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo . Primatologists working in Ntokou-Pikounda National Park have captured the first ever picture of the Bouvier 's red colobus monkey . Their discovery proves that the primate - which was first discovered in 1887 and is only known from three specimens - is not extinct . Scroll down for video . This is the first ever photograph of the Bouvier 's red colobus monkey , which was thought to have been extinct . The image captured by researchers Lieven Devreese and Gaël Elie Gnondo Gobolo appears to show a mother with her young . Researchers now hope to study the monkey in an attempt to learn more about it . A new species of monkey has been discovered after scientists learned to distinguish it by the appearance of its penis . The white-cheeked macaque was discovered in the remote highland forests of south-east Tibet after researchers set up camera traps . The monkey has a distinctive rounded penis rather than the arrow shaped genitalia found on other species in the area . Officially named Macaca leucogenys , it earned its common name due to the pale whiskers on its chin and the side of its face . Dr Pengfei Fan , one of the researchers who discovered the new species and a biologist at Dali University , Yunnan , in China , said the new macaque had long been misidentified as another species . He said that due to the remoteness of the location in Medog County of Tibet , few biologists had been there . Mr Devreese said : 'Our photos are the world 's first and confirm that the species is not extinct . 'No one knows anything about them . They live in an area where scientists rarely go , along the banks of a river a in a very inaccessible area . ' Mr Devreese spent three months , after setting off in February , searching the jungles of Congo in an attempt to find the Bouvier red colobus monkeys , or Piliocolobus bouvieri . Together with his Congelese colleagues , he visited remote villages to ask locals if they had seen them and traced the locations of unconfirmed reports of sightings . A group of the monkeys were discovered living in the forests that sit along the Bokiba River in the Ntokou-Pikounda National Park . However , they found that the creatures appear to be extremely vulnerable to hunters involved in the commercial bushmeat trade in the area . Red colobus monkeys are among the largest primates in the forests of Congo and are prized by hunters . The animals are also poor at recognising threats , often believing they are safe in the trees . Rather than fleeing , red colobus monkeys tend to look down at humans from the trees . The last unconfirmed sighting of a Bouvier 's red colobus monkey was in the 1970s and they are mentioned in a book from 1949 as living in swamp forests aong the Likouala and Sangha rivers . In his attempt to rediscover the monkeys , Mr Devreese launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for the expedition on Indiegogo . A video is shown above . The Bouvier 's red colobus monkey lives in stretches of jungle alongside rivers in the Congo ( pictured above ) The only previous examples of them had been collected more than 100 years ago . In his attempt to rediscover the monkeys , Mr Devreese launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for the expedition on Indiegogo . Dr Fiona Maisels , from the Wildlife Conservation Society , said : 'We ’ re very pleased indeed that Lieven and Gaël were able to achieve their objective of not only confirming that Bouvier ’ s red colobus still exists , but also managing to get a very clear close-up picture of a mother and infant . 'Thankfully , many of these colobus monkeys live in the recently gazetted national park and are protected from threats such as logging , agriculture , and roads , all of which can lead to increased hunting . ' James Deutsch , vice president for conservation strategy at the WCS , added : 'Confirmation that Bouvier ’ s red colobus still thrives in the this area reminds us that there remain substantially intact wild places on Earth , and should re-energize all of us to save them before it is too late . '
Bouvier 's red colobus monkeys was last sighted in the Congo during 1970s . The animals were captured by a French expedition and released into the wild after being used as zoo pets for decades.