Yunnan Golden Monkey

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(Provided to People's Daily Online/Ye Jin)

The Yunnan Golden Monkey is one of the most threatened species in China. It lives in virgin forests of the mountains southeast of the Tibetan Plateau.

The long and shaggy coat is mainly black on the back, arms and legs and white on the front. White hair also presents on the flanks and it is particularly long on the adult males. The lips are a deep pink, whilst the face is paler and there are yellowish-grey hairs on the shoulders. These monkeys get their common name for their unusual noses; the nasal bones are absent and the nostrils are upturned. Young are born white but become grey over several months.

Despite its morphological distinctiveness and noteworthy biology, Yunnan Golden Monkey is one of the lesser known primate species. It has elusive nature and inhospitable habitat with extremely steep hillsides, impenetrable bamboo thickets, freezing winter climate with snow as well as damp and foggy summers with minimum visibility.This species has a highly restricted distribution in the biodiversity hotspot of the Yunling Mountains which border the Himalaya range. Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys live at the highest altitude with any primate, except for humans.

Snub-nosed monkeys are a group of Old World monkeys and make up the entirety of the genus Rhinopithecus. The genus occurs rarely and needs much more research. Some taxonomists group snub-nosed monkeys together with the Pygathrix genus. These monkeys are a type of old world monkey, and are more closely related to apes than new world monkeys. The research of golden monkeys plays an important role in how people understand their evolutionary history. Hence it has a significant academic value.

Snub-nosed monkeys live in Asia, with a range covering southern China (especially Tibet, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou) as well as the northern parts of Vietnam and Myanmar. There are three main mountain species of snub-nosed monkey: the Guizhou snub-nosed monkey; the Yunnan snub-nose monkey; and the Sichuan snub-nose monkey. Snub-nosed monkeys are among the most endangered primate species in Asia.

The black snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus bieti), also known as the Yunnan snub-nosed monkey, is an endangered species of primate in the Cercopithecidae family. It is endemic to China, where it is known to the locals as the Yunnan golden hair monkey and the black golden hair monkey. It is threatened by habitat loss

• Gaoligong Mountain National Nature Reserve
• Towering grandeur of Naigu stone forest in Yunnan
• Yunnan's umbrella spectacle

• Discovering Yunnan

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