Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
With his distinctive shaggy orange hair, light blue face and thick hair covering his arms and legs, it’s hard to mistake ChinaThe golden-nosed monkey is as endangered as any other animal.
These rare and charismatic monkeys, unique to the cold mountains of central China, have recently joined the ranks of the country’s famous pandas as beloved messengers in zoos. Europe For the first time – on loan for 10 years from the same government-monitored group that coordinates official panda exchanges.
Like “panda diplomacy”, some observers applaud the new opportunities for scientific and conservation collaboration, while others raise concerns about the welfare of individual animal ambassadors taken around the world.
Leaping between red and brown tiled roofs
Three golden monkeys arrive at the Beauval Zoo in the city of Saint-Aignan, France, this April, following an agreement to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the People’s Republic of China and China. France,
Another trio of golden monkeys arrived at the Paris Déza Zoo in Hainaut, belgiumIn May. Zoo distributed in Belgium and Sugar Handed out flags to the visitors on the day the monkeys arrived.
After a month-long quarantine, two sets of monkeys made their public debut. According to both zoos, so far they appear to be in good health, and are adapting to the new climate outside Asia for the first time.
At Pari Daiza, Liu Yun, Lu Lu and Xuan Xuan’s habitat consists of traditional Chinese gazebos with red columns and grey-tiled roofs, where monkeys spend most of their time jumping between logs and rope ladders and climbing onto roofs.
“The diplomatic aspect comes from this cultural awareness,” said Johan Vreyes, a spokesman for Parry Deza.
The hope is to build a long-term scientific exchange between zoos and Chinese authorities, said Anais Moury, Beauval Zoo’s communications director.
The zoo is in discussions with China to launch joint research and conservation programs, “similar to programs already in place for other emblematic species like the panda,” Maury said.
A Brief History of Modern Animal Ambassadors
Both the giant panda and the golden snub-nosed monkey are endangered animals that are unique to China and can only be taken out of the country with central government approval, said Elena Songster, an environmental historian at St. Mary’s College of California.
While both species are considered national treasures, only monkeys have deeper roots in Chinese art and culture, appearing in countless paintings and as characters in classic literature, including the cunning Monkey King in the 16th-century novel “Journey to the West.”
When pandas strutted, rolled, scratched and wiggled onto the world stage in recent decades, they quickly became symbols of modern China — in part because of their own “embraceable beauty” and skillful diplomatic presentation, said Susan Brownell, a China historian at the University of Missouri, St. Louis.
China’s original postwar soft power duo was a pair of giant pandas, Ping Ping and Qi Qi, who were sent to the Soviet Union in 1957 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution, which led to the establishment of the world’s first communist state.
A pair of pandas were sent to the US for the first time after President Richard Nixon’s historic visit to Beijing in 1972. In 1984, China started giving loans to pandas instead of giving them gifts.
Following an outcry from animal-rights activists, China ended the practice of short-term loans and introduced longer-term leases, usually around a decade. In this arrangement, made through the China Wildlife Conservation Association, a portion of the funds paid annually to China by a foreign zoo must be earmarked for habitat conservation or scientific research for the benefit of the species.
Yet, what benefits one species may not be beneficial to an individual animal. Transporting animals over long distances and sending their offspring back to China, as the agreement requires, could put extreme stress on the animals, said Jeff Sebo, an environmental and bioethics researcher at New York University.
“Animal health and welfare matters,” he said, “not just for geopolitical or strategic purposes.”
Habitat conservation in China
Within China, golden snub-nosed monkeys today live across a large portion of central and southwestern China including parts of Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu, and Hubei provinces.
In Hubei’s Shennongjia National Park, conservation efforts since the 1980s have helped triple the area’s population to about 1,600 monkeys, said Yang Jingyuan, president of the academy of sciences at the park.
It is not clear how to evaluate the diplomatic track records of beloved ambassadors.
Still, in an era of rising global tensions, “I think pandas are a really useful gateway,” said James Carter, a China historian at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. “Pandas open up an opportunity for people to think something positive about China – they’re cute, they don’t do anything bad.”
Golden-nosed monkeys are so far the only monkeys outside Asia in zoos in France and Belgium.
“China’s golden-nosed monkeys are not yet globally iconic, but they may have the potential to be in the future,” Brownell said.
,
Associated Press video producer Wen Zhang in Shennongjia National Park contributed to this report.
,
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. AP is solely responsible for all content.