Tonkin Snub-nosed Monkey

About this species

Size

Head and body 51–65cm; tail 66–92cm

Weight

Females about 8kg; males about 14kg

Diet

Leaves (mainly bamboo and evergreen trees), fruit, flowers and seeds

Habitat

Primary bamboo and broadleaf evergreen forest on karst limestone, 200–1,200m

Range

Northern Vietnam (endemic)

Gestation

About 200 days

The Tonkin snub-nosed monkey, or Dollman's snub-nosed monkey, is a slender-bodied arboreal Old World monkey endemic to northern Vietnam. It has black and white fur, a flattened face with a pink upturned nose, thick pink lips and blue skin around the eyes. The upperparts are black, the underparts creamy-white, and there is an orange throat patch, especially obvious in breeding males; the tail has a white tip. Juveniles are grey (Wikipedia, general species account).

First described in 1912, it was rediscovered in 1989 and is exceedingly rare, the rarest of the five snub-nosed monkey species; in 2008 fewer than 250 individuals were thought to exist. It lives on fragmented patches of forest on craggy limestone hills. It is largely folivorous with a specialised stomach where bacteria break down cellulose. It is polygynous, females give birth to one or two young after about 200 days, and the main threats are habitat loss and hunting.

Description: Wildlife of Vietnam guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com); general species information paraphrased from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)