Endangered
Golden snub-nosed monkey
Rhinopithecus roxellana
Golden snub-nosed monkey is an Old World monkey in the family Cercopithecidae (order Primates) — Rhinopithecus roxellana, recorded as Endangered and tied to China.
Appearance
The crest is medium brown while the back, crown to nape, arms and outer thighs are deep brown. The brown crest also contains physically upright hairs, whose shape is useful for individual identification. The golden guard hairs on the cape are short and sparse, and their median brown crests show microbanding, while also turning from a brown color.
Even so, golden guard hairs are also present on the back and cape area, but they are shorter in length than in the males.
Range and habitat
The distribution of the golden snub-nosed monkey is limited to temperate forests on mountains in four provinces in China: Sichuan, Gansu, Shaanxi, and Hubei. This monkey is found at elevations of 1,500-3,400 m. Within this area, vegetation varies with altitude from deciduous, broadleaf forests at low elevations to mixed coniferous, broadleaf forests above 2,200 m and coniferous forests above 2,600 m.
This primate is found in a number of protected areas, among them Baihe Nature Reserve, Foping National Nature Reserve, Shennongjia National Geopark, and Wanglang National Nature Reserve.
Habitat labels include forest.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
Some observers have even come to conclude that these large foraging groups are multi-male and multi-female societies. The male may stay solitary, often remaining away from the rest of the group members as they rest.
In primate research, although male–male competition for mates and female mate choice are the common causes of sexual selection, female–female competition over males is especially important in polygynous species. Its diet varies markedly with the seasons, but it is primarily a herbivore with lichens being its main food source.
In crisis
Population estimates range from 8,000 to 15,000 and it is threatened by habitat loss. The golden snub-nosed monkey is endangered due to habitat loss. The golden snub-nosed monkey is also listed on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meaning that international trade in this species is prohibited.
In 2004, the endangered aspect of this monkey was publicized in a postage stamp issued by Guernsey Post.
Golden snub-nosed monkey is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Golden snub-nosed monkey, Wikidata item Q756080. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
