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Animal profile
Rhinopithecus roxellana
The golden snub-nosed monkey is a long-haired colobine of cold Chinese mountain forest, with a pale blue face and an upturned nose. It forms very large aggregations built from small one-male units. It endures winters with prolonged snow cover at altitudes above 2,000 metres.
When snow closes the mountain forests of central China, golden snub-nosed monkeys switch to a food almost no other primate uses. Lichens stripped from branches and bark can dominate the winter diet, sustaining troops through months with no fruit or fresh leaves.
In the cold months, when leaves and fruit are gone from Chinese mountain forest, golden snub-nosed monkeys switch to lichens growing on tree bark. Lichen can dominate the winter diet, and it is available in snow when almost nothing else is.