The Popa Langur has been confirmed as a new species by a joint effort of scientists from three organizations. The hunt began when bones in a 100-year-old natural history collection were reexamined using modern technology, suggesting the species was separate from other monkeys in Myanmar.
They are named after Myanmar’s Mount Popa, an extinct volcano where the largest group of monkeys live (approx. 100 individuals).
This group makes up nearly half of the existing specimens. Unfortunately, the species is critically endangered–estimates of the total number still in existence range from 200-260.
This got me thinking: what if a human found themselves in a similar situation? Maybe a cohort of 250 is taken into space?
I’m reading The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy for the first time and imagine a similar start to the story. A group of people belongs to a cult that just so happened to be correct about a coming apocalypse. An alien saves the entire group, taking them light years away to a habitat built for them.
Humans have to navigate infringements on their environment by outside companies wanting natural resources, hunting, and losing their main food supplies. In short, everything endangered species deal with now.
The main character would be a child who grows up watching the interaction between the humans in charge and the aliens, the primary contact being between those in preservation groups.
I’m imagining a cross between Octavia Butler’s Dawn and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
This could easily be a series where some group members escape and adapt to life in a city and complete destruction and relocation of their habitat. The eventual assimilation with an alien species would end the human race.
