Yunnan Snub Nosed Monkey: a conservation success story by The Nature Conservancy

Read about the efforts of The Nature Conservancy to protect the beautiful and endangered Black Snub-Nosed Monkey (also known as Yunnan Golden Monkey).

Too often, we read stories about animal species that go extinct even before scientists can name or study them. There are, however, some stories with a happy ending, or at least whose ending doesn’t look as bad as in the past.

The most incredible thing is that more and more of these stories come from a country notoriously famous for not doing much to protect our planet: China. At least, this happened for far too many years, but, as I said, many things are changing, even in China. I had the privilege to witness a small part of this change firsthand, and I’ll talk about it in this post.

But let me first briefly talk about what The Nature Conservancy (from now on TNC) is (they have offices also in Hong Kong and China), what they are doing, and I’ll give some info about the beautiful Black Snub-Nosed Monkeys (also known as Yunnan Golden monkey).

What is The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a charitable environmental organization based in Arlington, Virginia, United States. Its mission is to “conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends.” Their work focuses on the global priorities of Lands, Water, Climate, Oceans, and Cities. It was founded in 1951 and now impacts conservation in 69 countries.

It has over one million members and has protected over 48,000,000 ha of land and thousands of miles of rivers worldwide. TNC also operates over 100 marine conservation projects globally and is the largest environmental nonprofit by assets and revenue in the Americas. TNC is rated as one of the most trusted national organizations.

This NGO is very important and was the first foreign NGO devoted to protecting the environment that was allowed to work in China.

Yunnan Snub-Nosed Monkey 滇金丝猴: A Conservation Success Story by TNC

Let’s face it: the Black Snub-Nosed Monkeys are not the cutest animals you have ever seen. Aren’t they? First, they don’t have a nose (in case you haven’t noticed it). Second, they have a really weird Elvis-like hairstyle. But I love them anyway, and I DO believe they are beautiful!

These features make them unique and immediately recognizable even by someone who doesn’t know much about wildlife. These animals are peculiar also in many other aspects.

Black Snub-Nosed Monkey facts

These are some interesting facts about the Black Snub-Nosed Monkey:

• Scientists in the 1890s discovered it, then lost it and thought it to be extinct until 1962.
• The Black Snub-Nosed Monkey was almost completely unknown by the scientific community until the 1990s.
• They make their home at altitudes higher than any other primate except humans. They can survive at an altitude of up to 4700 meters.
• The Black Snub-Nosed Monkey lives in very large super-groups that are made up of several families. Each of them has a single dominant male with many females.
• Their favorite food is the Spanish moss that grows abundantly in the remote forests of South China, but it takes a lot to reform. So the monkeys move fast, looking for new sources of food.
• The Black Snub-Nosed Monkey (Rhinopithecus Bieti – 黑金丝猴, also called 滇金丝猴), native of Yunnan, is not the same as the Golden Snub-Nosed Monkey (Rhinopithecus Roxellana – 川金丝猴) that is native of Sichuan. The Black Snub-Nosed Monkeys left in the wild are about 3000, while the Golden Snub-Nosed Monkeys range from 8,000 to 15,000. The Tonkin Snub-Nosed Monkey is yet another species that lives in northern Vietnam.
• Due to their particular nose, they sneeze quite often when it rains.
• They give birth about once every two or three years.
• The main danger for this species is habitat loss (due to the illegal logging and removal of dead trees) and illegal hunting.
• The Black Snub-Nosed Monkeys are mainly found in the Baima Snow Mountain National Park (白马雪山).

The Black Snub-Nosed Monkey lives in these remote forests in Southern China.

What is the role played by TNC in saving the Black Snub-Nosed Monkey? This article pretty much explains everything. Long story short, the Chinese biologist Long Yongcheng spent over 10 years searching for the beautiful Yunnan Black Snub-Nosed Monkeys in the wild.

Equipped with just a telescope and notebook — no tent, no camping supplies — Long trekked into the thick alpine forests alone, leaving only to seek food from local herders and farmers. It took him four weeks to catch his first glimpse of live monkeys.

Sadly, at first, he got very little support. No one cared about his research. He almost gave up, but finally, in 2001, he found the right partner: TNC. Since then, everything changed. The number tripled from 1000 to 3000, and it keeps rising.

Where to photograph the Black Snub-Nosed Monkeys

Another good news: if you want to see the Black Snub-Nosed Monkey in the wild, it’s possible, and you don’t have to spend 10 years looking for them. 🙂 You’ll have to get to TaCheng (塔城) about 4 hours by car from Lijiang, in Yunnan. Alternatively, you can also get there from Shangri-La.

Once in the park, you’ll have to pay a 100RMB fee to get inside (one ticket is valid only for one day if you want to watch the monkeys).

There are a few accommodation options on Trip.com. I stayed in a very nice traditional Lisu house.

It was a basic accommodation that didn’t even have a heating system despite an elevation of about 2500 meters, but I loved it anyway.

Why is it so easy to see the monkeys in TaCheng? A particularly harsh winter forced the starving Snub-Nosed Monkeys closer to the village, and since then, a group of rangers has fed the monkeys regularly, thus making this group not entirely wild. They are free to come and go whenever they like, but they tend to stick around.

Some will conclude that interfering with these monkeys’ lives is not good, but I disagree. And this is why. As I said before, to successfully preserve an endangered species, people must love it; to love an animal, people must see it.

Seeing the monkeys in their environment is better than in a zoo, so the scientists sacrificed this group for the sake of the whole species.

What’s the secret to successfully protecting endangered species in China?

Establishing a National Park is not enough to protect a species. This is because these wild animals mostly live in the same areas as the local people, who are often very poor.

They hunt animals and destroy their environment mainly because they are uneducated about environmental conservation. They need food and wood in their daily lives. Plus, most of them are old and believe in traditional Chinese medicine that teaches that animal bones have some healing powers. It’s really hard to eradicate those beliefs.

The best solution to this problem is to make the local people part of the conservation efforts. Creating new jobs like rangers, guest houses, and so forth so that people won’t have any reason to threaten wildlife and the environment. Raise awareness and help hunters switch to other livelihoods.

For example, some hunters are becoming farmers. In one Conservancy-funded pilot project, a former hunter is now growing more mushrooms, making far more money than before.

Chinese rangers, who were once hunters and farmers, thus threatening the environment, are now involved in protecting the Snub-Nosed Monkeys.

Last but not least, it’s important to educate the younger generations. They are the future. The new generations are the ones who can save endangered species.

The future seems to be a bit bright for the Black Snub-Nosed Monkeys in China.

A big thank you to the TNC staff in Lijiang and Heqing, who are working so hard and passionately to protect the Wild Wonders of China: well done! A big thanks also goes to Michele, one of the TNC staff members in Hong Kong.

Reminders for your trip to Southern China

• Most websites are blocked, which means that you won’t be able to use Gmail, Google, Facebook, etc without it. This VPN works well to unblock them.
• This is a good eSim that works in China.
• Remember, Winter or early Spring can be quite cold.
• It’s better to use a zoom lens like 100-400mm to photograph the Snub-Nosed Monkeys because they can move fast. A fixed lens will give you a better range, but it might be problematic if the monkeys are too close. Remember to bring a tripod.
• The monkeys can be seen only in the morning between 9:00 and 11:00 a.m. So you don’t need to spend more than one night in Tacheng unless you want to take more pictures, in which case you’ll have to buy another ticket.
• Here is the complete travel guide to China.

Here, you can find more pictures of the wildlife in China and other parts of the world. If you want to know where to photograph the Snow Leopard, don’t miss this post. If you are thinking about moving to China, check out my article.

You can read my Yunnan travel guide here.