Second Place Winner: Successful Hybridization

Photo by Charlene Fournier, graduate student Charles E. Schmidt College of Science

This picture represents Tamu, a male hybrid monkey born in a habituated mixed-species group between red-tailed monkeys (Cercopithecus ascanius) and blue monkeys (C. mitis). Ongoing hybridization between these two species occurs in Gombe National Park, Tanzania, which provides a natural laboratory to study hybridization in the wild. Tamu’s phenotype, or physical characteristics, is intermediate between the two parental species. Amazingly, hybrids in Gombe are known to be viable and fertile, as Tamu’s mother is a hybrid individual herself, which could lead to the creation of a new Cercopithecus species.