The battle to save China's rare snub-nosed monkey

In the mountains of Shennongjia in central China, the golden snub-nosed monkey has faced many challenges over the years. Before the 1980s, people hunted these monkeys for their meat and fur, and poor farmers cleared large areas of forest to make room for their crops. As a result, the monkeys lost their homes, and their numbers dropped to less than 500 in the wild. When Yang Jingyuan arrived in Shennongjia in 1991, he saw that the monkeys were in danger because their habitat was being destroyed by logging. Now, Professor Yang is the director of the Shennongjia National Park Scientific Research Institute, and he has dedicated his life to studying and protecting these rare monkeys. Professor Yang has learned to understand many of the sounds the monkeys make. For example, 'Yeeee' means the area is safe, and 'Wu-ka' warns of danger. When the BBC visited, the monkeys came down from the trees to interact with the humans, showing their curiosity and intelligence. The golden snub-nosed monkeys have a complex social structure. Each family group is led by one male and includes several females and their children. These families sometimes join together to form larger bands of more than a hundred monkeys. Bachelor males form their own groups and sometimes act as guards. Female monkeys leave their families when they are six years old to prevent inbreeding, and older monkeys find quiet places to spend their final days alone. Rangers say they have never found a monkey's body because the animals hide so well. The creation of the national park in 1982 was an important step, but it took many years for local farmers to stop cutting down trees and hunting animals. Many people in the area were very poor and depended on the forest for survival. There was little understanding of the need to protect wildlife. Over time, scientists worked with the farmers, offering them jobs as forest protectors instead of destroyers. Fang Jixi, a ranger who grew up in Shennongjia, now helps patrol the hills, watching for poachers and helping researchers study the monkeys. The monkeys are hard to find because they move quickly through the treetops, covering distances in minutes that would take a person an hour to walk. At first, the monkeys were afraid of humans, but Professor Yang and his team spent a year slowly getting closer to them. Eventually, the monkeys accepted the researchers, and now Professor Yang feels like they are his friends. The forest has recovered, with tree coverage increasing from 60 percent to 96 percent. Millions of tourists now visit the park, but only approved staff can enter the special monkey protection zones. Today, there are about 1,600 golden snub-nosed monkeys, and the number is expected to keep rising. The monkeys reproduce slowly, with females having only one baby every two years, and not all babies survive. Despite these challenges, Professor Yang is optimistic that the population will reach 2,000 within ten years. The monkeys now have a safe home, plenty of food and water, and their numbers are growing. This story shows how people can work together to protect endangered animals and restore their habitats.