Huang Yuanpeng's fellow researchers from Shennongjia Golden Monkeys Protection and Research Center check on the monkeys. (Photo:China Daily/Liu Xiangrui)
Twelve researchers give their all to save an endangered species
Home is where the heart is, which raises a burning question for Huang Yuanpeng: Who pulls his heartstrings hardest — his wife and 3-year-old son or those strange creatures in the forest he has decided to devote his life to?
The group of animals that Huang, 34, has spent the past 10 years doing research on at Shennongjia Golden Monkeys Protection and Research Center high in the mountains of Shennongjia National Nature Reserve in Hubei province are as rare as pandas: golden snub-nosed monkeys that are found nowhere other than China.
Huang visits his home in a nearby town, where his wife takes care of their son, almost every month, but the transport logistics make it hard for some of the other 11 researchers aged from 20 to 60 from distant regions to go back home regularly.
They take turns to have four days off each month and even spend the traditional Chinese New Year looking after the monkeys.
And that self-sacrificing care seems to be paying off, for the group of snub-nosed monkeys he has been looking after has grown from about 50 to more than 90 over 10 years.
"I'm really happy to see that," Huang beams. "Our work has paid off."
Golden snub-nosed monkeys are distinguished by their bright fur, graceful movements, and gentle nature. They were once widely distributed throughout China but have retreated to high mountains because of changes in the environment.
They are critically endangered because of habitat destruction and human hunting, and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature has listed them as a rare animal species. China has classified them as a first-grade State-protected animal.
Years of close interaction with the monkeys has given
Huang and his colleagues an intimate knowledge of their charges' habits and traits. Each of the monkeys even has a name.
When Huang talks about the monkeys' lives he comes across as a proud parent talking about his offspring. That includes lovingly describing how one of the monkeys was born and recounting how a new male adult challenged and defeated an older male for supremacy in the group.
"I'm with the monkeys almost every day," Huang says. "We are very close now, and if I had to take a leave I would miss them so much."
Shennongjia, with mountains, thick forests and abundant rainfall that nurture diverse foods for animals, is an important habitat for the golden snub-nosed monkeys. Wild snub-nosed monkeys were first spotted there in the 1980s.
In 2005, the research center Huang works in was founded in Dalongtan, which is 2,300 meters above sea level and one of the natural habitats for the species.
The researchers selected a typical group of the monkeys that lived in a surrounding area of 8 square kilometers for long-term tracking and research.
The researchers track and observe the snub-nosed monkey population, and collect their feces and fur for research.
Huang says that at first life with the monkeys was dull, but he slowly acclimatized to the point where he could feel at one with them.
"The most important quality for working here is being able to withstand hardships."
