by Caryl Buckstein

Created on: August 01, 2010

The 2-foot tall Golden Snub-nosed Monkey inspired the environmental movement in China, its home. 

 Along with the giant panda, it is regarded as a national treasure. 

Loss of its habitat through deforestation is one of the latest threats this animal faces.  The International Union for Conservation of Nature, one of the oldest global environmental organizations, lists the golden monkey as endangered. 

Its numbers have declined by half in the last 40 years. The Switzerland-based IUCN blames habitat loss. 

Its scientific name is rhinopithecus roxellana. The Primate Info Net, a research center for the University of Wisconsin at Madison, attributes last part of the animal’s Latin name to the purportedly snub-nosed concubine and wife of Suleiman the Magnificent, a 16th century sultan of the Ottoman Empire. 

IUCN estimates that 11,000 individuals survive in the wild. 

Three subspecies of Chinese snub-nosed monkey exist. Until recently, the Yunnan snub-nosed monkey was the least known of the three. Conservationist Dr. Martin Williams, a British ex-patriot based in Hong Kong, said none of them had been seen for 70 years until eight pelts were bought by Deqin residents in 1967.  Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys had been feared extinct.

Adult golden monkeys have yellowish red to orange-red coat. The muzzle is white and hairless, while the area around the eyes is pale blue. The males have blue genitalia and wart-like growths at the corners of their mouths. Their canines are longer.  Females are about half the size of males. 

Their coat grows long over their shoulders. An observer told the World Wildlife Fund that it made the animals appear to have wings as they jumped from tree to tree. 

The pelage of golden monkeys helps them survive harsh winters in the wild. Winter snows often occur and last long. The animals may have to forage through snow cover up to four months a year. The University of Wisconsin quotes research that they have to withstand the coldest average temperatures of any non-human primate in the world. 

Wild golden snub-nosed monkeys rarely come down from the trees, and spend 97 percent of their time in the middle and upper strata of the mountainous temperate forests of central China. The roxellana subfamily range is restricted to the western area of the Sichuan province and the southern part of the Gansu province between the Dadu River and the Sichuan basin.

In their natural habitat they are primarily diurnal herbivores, eating mostly lichens and some insects. Their home range is quite large –between seven and 15 miles wide. 

In captivity, they are described in Primate Info Net as semi-arboreal. Some captive individuals lived past age 23. 

Their natural enemies include goshawks, red dogs, wolves, leopards, fox, zibet, Asiatic golden cats, tigers and golden eagles. It competes for food with giant pandas and takins. 

They have long been hunted for centuries by humans. The WWF said local people thought their pelts would ward off rheumatism.  Manchurian officials were the only ones allowed to wear coats made of their pelts. 

The plight of the Yunnan subspecies drew the attention of Chinese film maker Xi Zhinong in 1995. Xi learned of a government-supported plan to log a nearby forest that was home to more than 200 monkeys. Xi and his supporters founded a non-government organization, Action for Green. Xi’s documentaries garnered action from government officials. Xi says college students are enthusiastic about the NGO. 

One of China’s oldest environmental NGOs, Friends of Nature, also focuses on the monkey’s plight.

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