Wild Ambassadors: Golden monkeys join China’s diplomatic mission

LONDON: With their shaggy orange manes, pale blue faces and thick fur covering their hands and feet, it’s hard to mistake China’s endangered golden snub-nosed monkeys for any other animal.

These rare monkeys, native to the frigid mountains of central China, have now joined pandas as diplomatic envoys — loaned for a decade to zoos in Europe by the same state-run organisation that oversees China’s panda exchanges.

As with “panda diplomacy,” some welcome new opportunities for conservation and research, while others question the welfare of the animal ambassadors sent across the globe.

Three golden monkeys arrived at France’s Beauval Zoo in April to mark 60 years of diplomatic relations between China and France. Another trio followed in May to Pairi Daiza Zoo in Belgium, where visitors greeted them with Chinese and Belgian flags. After quarantine, both groups made their public debuts and appeared in good health, adapting to climates outside Asia for the first time.

At Pairi Daiza, Liu Yun, Lu Lu and Juan Juan live in an enclosure adorned with Chinese gazebos and rope ladders, spending much of their time leaping between logs and roofs.

“The diplomatic aspect comes from this cultural awareness,” said zoo spokesperson Johan Vreys.

Beauval Zoo’s communications director Anaïs Maury said discussions are underway with Chinese authorities to launch joint research and conservation projects “similar to those already in place for pandas.”

Both species are endangered and can only be transferred abroad with approval from China’s central government, said Elena Songster, an environmental historian at St. Mary’s College of California. While pandas and golden monkeys are both national treasures, only monkeys hold deep roots in Chinese art and folklore, notably the wily Monkey King from the 16th-century classic Journey to the West.

When pandas first appeared abroad, their cuddly charm and careful diplomatic framing turned them into global icons of modern China, said Susan Brownell, a China historian at the University of Missouri–St. Louis.

The first panda pair, Ping Ping and Qi Qi, was sent to the Soviet Union in 1957; another pair reached the U.S. in 1972 after President Richard Nixon’s historic Beijing visit. By 1984, China switched from gifting pandas to leasing them, with part of the fees supporting conservation and research.

Over time, the model evolved into decade-long loans administered by the China Wildlife Conservation Association. But animal welfare advocates caution that what benefits a species may not help individual animals.

“Transporting animals long distances and sending offspring back to China can be highly stressful,” said Jeff Sebo, an environmental and bioethics researcher at New York University. “Animal health and welfare matter — not just for geopolitical aims.”

Within China, golden snub-nosed monkeys live across parts of Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu and Hubei provinces. Conservation at Hubei’s Shennongjia National Park has tripled the population there since the 1980s, to about 1,600 monkeys today, said Yang Jingyuan, head of the park’s Academy of Sciences.

It’s unclear how to measure the diplomatic value of these furry envoys. Still, in a tense global climate, “pandas — and perhaps now golden monkeys — offer a positive entryway,” said historian James Carter of Saint Joseph’s University.

“China’s golden snub-nosed monkeys aren’t globally iconic yet,” added Brownell, “but there may be potential for them to be in the future.”