When talking about China's "national treasure" animals, the "golden monkey" must be on the list. Everybody is familiar with the beautiful monkey in the picture above. The real name of it is the golden snub-nosed monkey, endemic to central and southwest China. Do you know it has cousins who are equally cute and rare? 

In fact, the snub-nosed monkey is a primate genus with five species. Three of them lives in China. In Chinese, they are all called "Jin Si Hou" (meaning "golden hair monkey"). However, only one of them has golden-colored fur.

Slide the gallery below to see three different "golden money":

The golden one with blue face: golden snub-nosed monkey, or "Sichuan golden hair monkey." It is the most known, and most widely distributed of the three, inhabiting in China's Sichuan, Shaanxi, Hubei and Gansu. Living at elevations of 1,500-3,400 meters, the golden snub-nosed monkey can withstand colder average temperatures (average annual temperature is 6.4 °C) than any other non-human primates.

The black-and-white one with thick pink lips: black-and-white snub-nosed monkey, or "Yunnan golden hair monkey". It is highly distinctive with the hairless bright pink lips. The monkey lives only in the mountains in the southern Chinese province of Yunnan. In fact, it lives at the highest altitude of any known non-human primate. The highest recorded altitude of a group of this species is 4,700 meters. It is also the most mysterious one of the three; not even one zoo outside China has ever kept a black-and-white snub-nosed monkey.

The grey one with golden forehead and chest : grey snub-nosed monkey, or "Guizhou golden hair monkey". It has bluish-white face (paler than the golden snub-nosed monkey) and pink skin around the lips (different from the black-and-white snub-nosed monkey's pink lips). It can also be recognized by a white patch between its shoulder blades. Though all three species of snub-nosed monkey are listed as endangered by IUCN, the grey snub-nosed monkey is the most threatened of the three, with a population of 700-750 in the wild, refined to China's southwestern province of Guizhou.

Slide to see difference of three monkeys' faces:

There are other two species in the snub-nosed monkey genus. The Tonkin snub-nosed monkey (Vietnam snub-nosed monkey) is black-and-white, while the Myanmar snub-nosed monkey is black. So, here comes the question: why they are all called "golden hair monkey" in Chinese?

Yes, you guessed it right. The world's first discovered snub-nosed monkey is the golden one. This is why all species share the name "golden monkey" in China.

(Cover image via VCG)

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