Source: Qianjiang Evening News
Recently, the Lin'an District Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau and the Zhejiang Provincial Forest Resources Monitoring Center jointly carried out a background survey of global wildlife resources and achieved good results.
In the process of conducting animal surveys in Daoshi Town, Lin'an District, the field investigation team recorded for the first time through video images that the national second-level primate protected animal - the Tibetan chief monkey (macaca thibetana), was verified to be 3 large and 2 small, a total of 5 animals, belonging to the same family group.
This is the first record of the discovery of wild Tibetan chief monkeys in the Greater Hangzhou area.
The Tibetan chief monkey is the most powerful monkey distributed in China, and even ordinary people in some places call it "chimpanzee".
Adult male Tibetan chief monkeys grow very obvious beard-like long hairs, looking like old monkeys, but in fact such monkeys may be in their prime and have good attack ability.
Although the Tibetan chief monkey has a "Tibetan" character in its name, it does not actually live in Tibet. Their main living and breeding areas are concentrated in the central and southern regions of China, west to Sichuan, north to the south of the Qinling Mountains, south to The Southern Ridge of Guangdong, Zhejiang is the easternmost edge of their distribution, is a wide range but limited number of primates.
Adult Tibetan monkeys can reach a length of more than 70 centimeters and weigh about 35 pounds. The Tibetan chief monkey has a short tail, only about seven centimeters, so it has the nickname of "short-tailed monkey" or "broken-tailed monkey".
Tibetan chief monkey (macaca thibetana) archival photo, photo by Zhou Jiajun, Zhejiang Forest Resources Monitoring Center
But in southwest China and south of Nanling in Guangdong, south China and southern Fujian live another kind of real short-tailed monkey (macaca arctoides), this kind of monkey is not distributed in Zhejiang, so don't confuse the two.
Tibetan monkey is endemic to China, due to the continuous expansion of human life boundaries, the living area of Tibetan monkey is shrinking day by day, many areas that have been distributed in China's history are now becoming less and less numerous, and individual areas have even disappeared.
According to incomplete data collation, the number of Tibetan chief monkeys in the country can reach thousands, and there are only a few groups in general counties, about one or two hundred, and only a few dozen in the few. According to this estimate, the national population of Tibetan chief monkeys is about 10,000.
Up to now, only 7 cities and counties in Zhejiang Province, such as Jiangshan, Kaihua, Taishun, Jingning, Suichang, Longquan and Qingyuan, have records of the distribution of Tibetan chief monkeys. The discovery of the Tibetan chief monkey in Lin'an District has greatly expanded the spatial distribution range of the Tibetan chief monkey in Zhejiang Province, making us fortunate to see its true appearance in the Greater Hangzhou area, which has contributed valuable records to the distribution and protection of animal resources in Zhejiang.
Photographs of background investigation of wildlife resources
Finding out the base number, diversity characteristics, habitat health status, and multi-year change patterns of wildlife resources are important indicators and contents for evaluating the effectiveness of ecosystem protection.
To this end, in 2021, Lin'an District launched the Background Survey Project on Wildlife Resources, aiming to strengthen resource protection and scientific management, effectively fulfill the obligation of wildlife protection, and promote the construction of regional ecological civilization.
The summer survey of the project has been completed and the autumn survey is now ongoing.
The project plans to use three years to conduct background surveys of wild animals in Lin'an area in every season, especially in the deep mountains and old forests at the junction of Zhejiang and Anhui.
I believe that with the continuous deepening of the later investigation work, there will be more and more surprises to bring to everyone.
Source: Qianjiang Evening News Hourly News Reporter Huang Weifen Correspondent Luo Xuqin