First ever camera footage of the Myanmar snub-nosed monkey

The first ever video footage of the newly discovered Myanmar snub-nosed monkey has been captured by Fauna & Flora International (FFI)

March 2014: The critically endangered Myanmar snub-nosed monkey has been captured for the first time on film in Kachin state, Myanmar.

Although the monkey was first discovered in 2010, it has remained elusive, and has only ever been captured on camera traps.

Fauna & Flora International team member Kaung Haung was finally the first to encounter a large group of the elusive primates, while trekking through Kachin state to check on camera traps recently.

Frank Momberg, FFI’s Myanmar Programme Director says, “The video footage is evidence to the continued presence of this threatened species and gives us a first glimpse into the social organisation of the Myanmar snub-nosed monkey.

Continued

Gorgeous snub-nosed monkey with the face of a god- via Cad Arment

A gorgeous flash of gold against a black and white backdrop, you'd think this golden snub-nosed monkey would be hard to miss. Unfortunately, it is rare to spot Rhinopithecus roxellanain its native China, where it is endangered.

"I was lucky to find this golden monkey," says photographer Mattias Klum, who was trekking the Qinling Mountains of China's Shaanxi province searching for pandas when he came across it. "By the time I had taken a few pictures, it was gone."

They may be shy around humans, but golden snub-nosed monkeys are social animals, and live in groups of up to 500 individuals. They are most likely to be glimpsed in the trees, like this one, where they swing from the branches.

"I was on steep bamboo hills, and it was quite cold," recalls Klum. "It was the only colourful thing, really." The animals' beautiful fur makes them prime targets for poachers, but their biggest threat is habitat loss, he says. Commercial logging, even of dead trees, can rob the monkeys of their home and food source.

When Klum first exhibited this photograph in China, he recalls audience members being moved to tears. "It's a sacred animal in China," he says. "It has a very human-like face and looks like a god." Despite this, the monkey probably has the snub-nosed wife of a 16th-century sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Roxellana, to thank for its Latin name.

The photograph appears in the book The Human Quest, by Klum and Johan Rockström, which details the consequences of human actions on biodiversity. "Humanity has become a geological force changing the planet at an unprecedented scale," says Rockström, a resource management scientist at Stockholm University in Sweden. "The book combines science and photography to reach the rational and emotional, the brain and the heart."

Photo:  http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2012/07/gorgeous-snub-nosed-monkey-wit.html

First Photo Evidence of Snub-Nosed Monkey Species in China

ScienceDaily (July 26, 2012) — Chinese researchers have published the first evidence that a population of the recently discovered snub-nosed monkey, Rhinopithecus Strykeri, live in China. Until now researchers have been unable to photograph the monkey, whose upturned nostrils are said to make it sneeze in the rain.

The paper is published in theAmerican Journal of Primatology.The species was first discovered by a team led by Ngwe Lwin from the Myanmar Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association and described by Dr Thomas Geissman in the American Journal of Primatology in October 2010. It was believed that the species was isolated to the Kachin State of north eastern Myanmar. However, this new discovery reveals the international range of this critically endangered species.

The new expedition, led by Yongcheng Long from the Nature Conservancy China Program, travelled to the Yunnan province of China after a forest guard, Liu Pu, took photos of a group of snub-nosed monkeys in a forest in near Pianma, in Yunann's Lushui County.



Continued:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120726101715.htm

Genetic Study Sheds Light On Evolution and May Help Prevent Extinction of the Myanmar Snub-Nosed Monkey

ScienceDaily (May 23, 2012) — A team of scientists from the German Primate Center (DPZ), led by Dr Christian Roos, have completed genetic studies on all five snub-nosed monkey species, providing crucial information for the conservation of these rare primates.

The Myanmar snub-nosed monkey, discovered by a team from Fauna & Flora International (FFI), Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association (BANCA) and People Resources and Conservation Foundation (PRCF) in 2010, has been of particular interest, given recent efforts in developing a conservation plan and protected areas within Myanmar, to ensure the survival of the species.

Previous scientific descriptions were based on information from Dr Thomas Geissmann's taxonomic description, but the Myanmar snub-nosed monkey, or Rhinopithecus strykeri, is now confirmed as its own species.

Dr Christian Roos, with colleagues from Switzerland, USA, China, Myanmar and Vietnam analysed the DNA of all five snub-nosed monkey species currently known to science. The genetic material was isolated from faecal samples and skin fragments, cut out from museum exhibits. "We can indeed confirm that the Myanmar Snub-Nosed Monkey is a new species," says Christian Roos.

Continued:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120523102059.htm

Scientists capture first images of rare Burmese monkey

Conor Duffy, Environment reporter

Burma's extremely rare and elusive species of snub-nosed monkey has been captured on camera for the first time.

The remote mountainous forests of Burma's north are home to the monkey, an animal so elusive it was not documented until 2010 when one of them fell to a hunter.

While researchers obtained a number of other deceased animals and observed them in the wild, the monkeys had never been photographed.

Now a joint team led by Fauna and Flora International (FFI), Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association (BANCA) and People Resources and Conservation Foundation (PRCF) have captured images of the monkey.

"The Myanmar snub-nosed monkey was described scientifically in 2010 from a dead specimen collected from a local hunter," Frank Momberg of FFI said.

"As yet no scientist has seen a live individual."

Ngwe Lin from Burma was with the 2010 team that first identified the monkey as a possible new species.

"These images are the first record of the animal in its natural habitat," Ngwe Lin said.

Much of what is known about it comes from information from locals.

Hunters have reported that the monkey's tiny, upturned nose means it constantly sneezes when it rains, sometimes giving away its location.

The animals are said to crouch down with their face to the ground to avoid rain.

Heavy rainfall and snow also made life hard for the team trying to track the species.

Jeremy Holden is based in Phnom Penh, but led the camera trapping expedition.

"We were dealing with very tough conditions in a remote and rugged area that contained perhaps fewer than 200 monkeys," he said.

"We didn't know where they lived and I didn't hold out much hope of short-term success with this work."

But in May a small group of monkeys walked past the camera trap and images were taken for the first time.

Encouragingly for the research team, some of the females were carrying babies.

Environment groups remain concerned about the future of the species and next month they plan on writing a conservation plan for the monkeys in Burma's largest city Rangoon.

"It is great to finally have photographs because they show us something about how and where it actually lives."

The photos were taken by camera traps set up in the forested mountains of Kachin State, bordering China.

The species is among the world's most threatened primates with estimates of its numbers ranging from 200 to about 330.

Photos: http://abcasiapacificnews.com/stories/201201/3406271.htm