Yunnan Snub Nosed Monkey: a conservation success story

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 known for doing little to protect our planet: China. Fortunately, things are changing, and I had the privilege to witness a small part of this firsthand.

But let me first briefly talk about what The Nature Conservancy (from now on, TNC) is (they also have offices 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 the Yunnan Golden Monkey).

Succes stories

The story of the Giant Panda is perhaps the most famous conservation success. At the beginning, attempts to protect the species were a disaster. In the 1950s, China believed the best solution was to put pandas in cages.

The turning point came in the 1990s. Increased knowledge of the species, combined with stricter environmental laws, allowed the population to start recovering. Today, nearly 2,000 pandas live in the wild, and their numbers are still growing.

What was the secret behind this success? Empathy. To save a species, people must fall in love with it. When they feel connected, they are more willing to donate and to report poaching. With the panda, its gentle appearance helped – and the strategy worked perfectly. Thanks to these efforts, it is no longer classified as an endangered species.

Another story with a happy ending, almost like a movie, is that of the Père David’s Deer (Milu Deer). It’s a bizarre animal: in China, people say it has the head of a horse, the hooves of a cow, the tail of a donkey, and the antlers of a deer. At the end of the 19th century, the last herd in China, owned by the emperor, was wiped out in two blows: first by a flood in 1895, and then definitively during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. The Milu was officially extinct in its homeland.

Luckily, some specimens had been smuggled into Europe. This is where Herbrand Russell, the 11th Duke of Bedford, enters the picture. He gathered the remaining animals from zoos and bred them on his estate. The entire present-day population descends from that small group. In 1985, the Milu was reintroduced to China, and today there are over 5,500 individuals. An incredible story.

What is The Nature Conservancy

Most people probably know WWF, but fewer are familiar with The Nature Conservancy (TNC). It’s the largest environmental organization in the United States by funds raised, with over a million members and millions of hectares protected worldwide.

What’s especially interesting is its relationship with China. TNC was the first environmental NGO invited to work in the country, and the Chinese government entrusted it with consulting projects to help create new protected areas.

Thanks to growing prosperity, more and more people now have access to good education, disposable income, and time to travel, which means they’re slowly beginning to appreciate nature and understand just how important it is to protect it. There’s still a long way to go, but the direction is the right one.

And that brings us to the main topic of this post: protecting the Black Snub-Nosed Monkey.

Yunnan Snub-Nosed Monkey (滇金丝猴): A Conservation Success Story

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 to someone who knows little about wildlife. These animals are peculiar 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 entirely unknown by the scientific community until the 1990s.
• They make their home at altitudes higher than any other primate except humans, and they can survive up to 4700 meters.
• The Black Snub-Nosed Monkey lives in very large supergroups composed of several families. Each of them has a single dominant male with many females.
• Their favorite food is Spanish moss, which grows abundantly in the remote forests of South China. However, 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 to 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 threats to this species are habitat loss (due to illegal logging and the 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), not too far from Shangri-La.

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 a 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.

TNC was also involved in helping preserve the Wild Asian Elephants found in Southern Yunnan. You can read more here.

Where to photograph the Black Snub-Nosed Monkeys

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.

The monkeys live in the Gaoligong Mountain Range, and if you’re interested in visiting this little-known area, I recommend reading this travel guide to Western Yunnan.

You will have to pay a ticket that costs around 100 RMB to enter the park and is valid for one day only. There are very few places to stay, one hotel, and a small eco-resort of about ten cabins built in the traditional style of the Lisu minority. They’re made of wood and stone and bring to mind our European alpine chalets. The houses are very simple (there’s not even heating, and the village sits at 2,500 meters above sea level!).

Why is it even possible to see the monkeys in Tacheng, given that by nature they’re always on the move? Because after an especially harsh winter, hungry Snub-Nosed Monkeys approached the village in search of food, and since then, the rangers have been feeding them regularly. So that group, while free to come and go as they please, is accustomed to people and can be observed up close.

As explained with the pandas, to successfully save an endangered species, people need the chance to see the animals, and this solution is undoubtedly better than locking the monkeys in a zoo.

Scientists chose to ‘sacrifice’ a small group to save the entire species. Right or wrong, a choice can only be judged by its results, and the results, it must be said, have been more than excellent.

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

Creating a National Park isn’t enough to protect a species. Most of the time, wildlife lives in areas where very poor communities hunt them, either to earn a little money or because of supposed medicinal properties. These beliefs are difficult, if not impossible, to uproot.

The only way to succeed is to involve the local community in protecting endangered species. Jobs have been created for local people to give them an alternative source of income. This story strongly reminds me of what’s happening in Qinghai with Snow Leopard conservation.

Some hunters have become rangers, while others have found work in hotels or other tourism-related businesses. The government has also replaced wood-burning stoves in people’s homes with electric ones, reducing the pressure to shrink the monkeys’ habitat.

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

Educating the next generations is essential: they are the future. They’ll be able to take conservation a step further, and organizations like TNC are doing an excellent job of guiding them.

This is just one of many stories worth telling and, for once, it’s one with a happy ending. In China, the outlook feels a little brighter, at least for the Black Snub-Nosed Monkeys.

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. This VPN works well to unblock them. If you prefer an eSIM, I recommend this one. Don’t forget a Travel Insurance.
• It’s better to use a zoom lens 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.
• The monkeys can be seen only in the morning between 9:00 and 11:00 a.m.
• Here is the complete travel guide to China.

If you want to read about another similar project in Yunnan, this time involving birds, check my article about the Hornbill Valley in Yingjiang.

Here, you can find more pictures of the wildlife in China and other parts of the world. If you are thinking about moving to China, check out my article. You can read my Yunnan travel guide here.