With their distinctive bright orange fur and pale blue faces, it’s hard to mistake China’s endangered golden snub-nosed monkeys for anything else.

At the Shennongjia National Park in Hubei, conservation efforts since the 1980s have helped increase the region’s population threefold to around 1,600 monkeys today.

Known for its striking golden fur and unique nasal structure, this species plays a vital role in forest ecosystems as a seed disperser and indicator of environmental health.

These primates were once widespread across central and southwestern China’s dense temperate forests, relying on lichens, leaves, fruits, and bark for sustenance.

However, the species was on the brink of local extinction in Shennonjia due to logging, agricultural expansion, hunting and climate change.

These rare charismatic monkeys, unique to the mountains of central China, have recently joined the country’s famous pandas as furry envoys to zoos in Europe for the first time -- on loan for 10 years from the same government-overseen group that coordinates official panda exchanges.

And as with “panda diplomacy,” some observers cheer new opportunities for scientific and conservation collaboration while others raise concerns about the welfare of individual animal ambassadors transported around the world.

AP video by Wei qun Zhang

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