With their distinctive shaggy orange manes, pale blue faces and dense fur covering their hands and feet, it is hard to mistake China’s endangered golden snub-nosed monkeys for any other animal.
These rare and charismatic monkeys, unique to the frigid 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.
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.
Photo: Pairi Daiza via AP
Three golden monkeys arrived at Beauval Zoo Saint-Aignan, France in April, following an agreement to mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France.
Another trio of golden monkeys arrived at the Pairi Daiza zoo in Brugelette, Belgium, in May.
After a monthlong quarantine, the two sets of monkeys made their public debuts.
So far, they appear to be in good health, adapting to new climates outside Asia for the first time, the zoos said.
At Pairi Daiza, the enclosure for the monkeys includes traditional Chinese gazebos with red columns and gray-tiled roofs, where the monkeys spend much of their time jumping between logs and rope ladders, and scrambling over roofs.
The hope is to build longstanding scientific exchanges between the zoos and Chinese authorities, Beauval Zoo communications director Anais Maury said.
The zoo is in discussions with China to launch joint research and conservation programs “similar to those already in place for other emblematic species like pandas,” Maury added.
Giant pandas and golden snub-nosed monkeys are endangered animals that are unique to China and can only be moved outside the country with approval from the central government, environmental historian Elena Songster said.
When pandas stepped, rolled, scratched and stumbled onto the world stage, they quickly became symbols of modern China — in part to due to their “cuddly cuteness” and deft diplomatic presentation, China historian Susan Brownell said.
The original soft power couple from from China was a pair of giant pandas sent to the Soviet Union in 1957 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution, which led to the establishment of the world’s first Communist state.
In 1972, a pair of pandas was sent to the US, following then-US president Richard Nixon’s historic visit to Beijing.
In 1984, China switched from gifting pandas to loaning them.
Following outcry from animal rights activists, China ended the practice of short-term loans and began longer leases, usually about a decade.
In an era of rising global tensions, “I think pandas are a really useful entryway,” China historian James Carter said. “Pandas open up an opportunity for people to think something positive about China — they’re cute, they don’t do anything bad.”
The golden snub-nosed monkeys now at zoos in France and Belgium are so far the only ones outside of Asia.
Brownell said that “China’s golden snub-nosed monkeys aren’t globally iconic yet, but there may be potential for them to be in the future.”
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