UK funding to help rare monkey conservation project

A scheme to help protect an endangered species of monkey is one of 33 programmes to receive funding from the UK government.

The Burmese snub-nosed monkey is one of the world's rarest species and was only photographed for the first time last year, the BBC reports.

Led by Fauna and Flora International (FFI), the conservation project will seek to establish how many of the creatures are remaining and develop an effective strategy to protect them.

The group believes there are around 300 remaining in the wild, though scientists know little about the primate.

Senior programme manager for the Asia-Pacific region at the FFI Dr Stephen Browne said: "That we could be faced with losing a species almost as soon as it is discovered seems almost unthinkable."

He told the news provider this is a real possibility unless "swift and decisive action" is taken to conserve it.

Native to a remote region in northern Burma, the snub-nosed monkey was first described scientifically in 2010 from a dead specimen found by a local hunter.

Researchers in the region were then able to capture the first photos of the species in its natural environment the following year.

Money from the Darwin Initiative, run by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), will help the FFI pay for fieldwork operations that aim to learn more about the distribution and behaviour of the moneys, as well as any threats they are facing.

This information will then be used to formulate an action plan to protect the species.

Some of the other projects that will share £8.5 million of Defra funding include schemes to protect animals such as the Chinese giant salamander and large carnivores in Tanzania, including lions, leopards and cheetahs.

Recently, the benefits of conservation projects were highlighted by a scheme in China, which has helped boost the numbers of white-headed langur monkeys from around 600 in 2003 to almost 1,000 today, UPI reported.

There are no endangered primates here at CartridgeMonkey, but we do have a huge range of ink supplies and printer cartridges ready for immediate delivery.