Critically Endangered
Gray snub-nosed monkey
Rhinopithecus brelichi
Gray snub-nosed monkey is an Old World monkey in the family Cercopithecidae (order Primates) — Rhinopithecus brelichi, recorded as Critically Endangered and tied to China.
Appearance
Adults are covered with long, fine hair, generally grading from brown on its upper body to gray on its lower body, with a white patch between its shoulder blades. It has a golden chest, and chestnut fur on its inner knees and inner sides of its upper arms. Its face is bare bluish-white skin, pink around the eyes and mouth, and has a shelf-like brow and reduced nasal bones, giving it a snub-nosed appearance.
Size data is limited, but two adult male specimens weighed 14.5 kg on average, and an adult female specimen weighed 8 kg, with adult length excluding tail ranging from 64–73 cm, and tail length ranging from 70–97 cm.
Range and habitat
The confirmed distribution range of the gray snub-nosed monkey is limited to the Fanjingshan National Nature Reserve in the Wuling Mountains in Guizhou province, China. There is unpublished evidence that 20 individuals moved from the Nature Reserve to an adjacent community forest (Lijiadashan), and there are unconfirmed anecdotal reports of a population in Jinfoshan Nature Reserve. Its habitat consists of mixed deciduous and evergreen broadleaf forests, among them secondary forest, but not coniferous forest.
In 1978, the Fanjingshan National Nature Reserve was established, covering the entire range of the gray snub-nosed monkey, this area was subsequently designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1986. In 2018, Fanjingshan was designated a World Heritage Site composed of Fanjingshan National Nature Reserve, Yinjiang Yangxi Provincial Nature Reserve, and a small area of National Non-Commercial Forest.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
The diurnal species is considered semi-terrestrial, primarily inhabits trees where available. Locomotion includes a mix of "quadrupedal walking, climbing, leaping, semi-brachiation (tree-swinging) and occasional full brachiation." It feeds on a variety of young leaves, leaf and flower buds, bark, fruits, certain petioles (e.g.
Seasonality of the forest means the monkey's diet changes seasonally as well. It may be 7% leaves in the first three months of the year, and 93% in the next three. Fruits and seeds can constitute 35% of the diet in July to September.
In crisis
It is threatened by habitat loss. Even though legally protected, the gray snub-nosed monkey is threatened seriously due to habitat loss from forest clearing, illegal mining, non-targeted hunting, and occasional inadvertent snare trapping. A 2008 census located around 750 individuals, consistent with a 2005 census.
The estimated number was reduced in 2020 when a study on the remaining habitat estimated there may be as few as 125 to 336 individuals.
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix I. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Gray snub-nosed monkey is Critically 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 Gray snub-nosed monkey, Wikidata item Q291103. 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.
