A monkey believed to have been extinct since 2004 has been rediscovered in the rainforests of Borneo.

Miller’s Grizzled Langur is alive and well in the Wehea Forest, East Kalimantan – well outside it’s previously recorded home range in the north-eastern part of Borneo.

The large grey monkey also used to roam the islands of Sumatra and Java and the Thai-Malay peninsula.

Brent Loken, from Simon Fraser University in Canada, said: “While our finding confirms the monkey still exists… there is a good chance it remains one of the world’s most endangered primates.

“I believe it is a race against time to protect many species in Borneo. It is difficult to adopt conservation strategies to protect species when we don’t even know the extent of where they live.”

The discovery was published in the American Journal of Primatology.

He added: “We were all pretty ecstatic, the fact that wow, this monkey still lives.”