An artificially propagated Yannan snub-nosed monkey (
Rhinopithecus bieti) gave birth to a healthy offspring on 25 May at the CAS Kunming Institute of Zoology (KIZ) in southwest China's Yunnan Province. It is the first cub of the second filial generation of the precious animal cultured in captivity in China.
The monkey is extremely scarce in number and rated under the first-grade State protection in this country. A survey in 2006 estimated that less than 1,700 individuals survived in the dense forests of the mountain-locked and high-elevation backwater wilderness at the northwestern tip of Yunnan Province and southeast corner of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Since the 1980s, KIZ scientists have been making a series of penetrating studies on the monkey's distribution, zonation, phylogeny, systematic evolution, reproductive biology, behavioral ecology, molecular genetics and protection. By introducing up-to-date bio-technology, they conduct a multi-disciplinary and comprehensive approach, including the captive breeding and ex-situ protection. So far, the population at KIZ has cover 12 individuals and the Institute has establishes a complete set of rearing techniques such as breeding management, reproduction and prevention of diseases.
