R

esearchers working in northern Myanmar have taken the first ever photographs of the rare “snub-nosed” monkey.

It is thought that the high, forested mountains of Kachin state, contain fewer than 200 of the monkeys.

A joint team of researchers from Fauna & Flora International (FFI), Biodiversity And Nature Conservation (BANCA) and the People Resources and Conservation Foundation (PRCF) set camera traps in the mountains bordering China. Last Tuesday they announced that they had snapped the elusive primate.

Like many rare Asian mammals in the region, the monkey is threatened by both loss of habitat and hunting.

Ngwe Lwin, the Burmese national who first recognized the monkey as a possible new species, says the photographs are important as they are “the first record of the animal in it’s natural habitat” and the team is now working together with authorities to safeguard the future of the species.

Taking place in Yangon this February, FFI and the Burmese Ministry of Environmental Conservation And Forestry (MOECAF) will hold an international workshop that hopes to create a conservation action plan for the primates. To date, no scientist has seen a live snub-nosed monkey.

“[It was] described scientifically in 2010 from a dead specimen collected from a local hunter.” stated Frank Momberg of FFI, who organized the expeditions leading to the monkey’s photos.

Jeremy Holden, who led the camera trapping team, says that heavy snows in January and constant rain during April made expeditions like this difficult. “We didn’t know exactly where they lived and I didn’t hold out much hope of short term success with this work.”

In addition, the cameras caught images of infant monkeys.

“It was exciting to see that some of the females were carrying babies” said Saw Soe Aung, a field biologist who was part of the team that set up the cameras.