Snub-nosed monkeys are making a comeback in China, reports the BBC:
Until the 1980s people roamed the mountains of Shennongjia in central China hunting monkeys for their meat and fur.
Poor farmers were still clearing vast areas of trees, and as their environment collapsed around them, so did the local population of golden snubbed-nosed monkeys, dropping below 500 in the wild. This was the situation when new graduate Yang Jingyuan arrived in 1991, still in his early 20s…Old photos from the early days of Prof Yang’s team show bare hills with tree cover of around 60% but [now there is 96%] tree coverage…the 500 monkeys figure has now become more than 1,600 and they are hoping that this will pass 2,000 within 10 years….
One male head of a family group might have three to five wives, plus their children….Bachelor males form their own groups, which at times stand guard. Females have “affairs” behind their husband’s backs, causing tension…
Six-year-old females know when it is time to leave their family and join another so as to prevent inbreeding and the animals – which live until around 24 years old – also know when it is time for them to die.
Near the end of their lives, they find a quiet place by themselves and go out alone [to die]. The rangers said the spots were so secluded that, over decades, they had never been able to find a monkey’s body after this had happened.
Bobcats recently returned to New Jersey after being absent from the state for 50 years.
Amur leopards are making a comeback in Russia’s far east.
Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs have come back from near extinction
The snow leopard population has doubled in Kazakhstan..
A giant fish believed to be extinct was found in the Mekong River.
Fish species rebounded off the coast of California due to their young finding a sanctuary in abandoned oil rigs.
