Nine baby monkeys born in Central China reserve

Nine golden snub-nosed monkeys have been born this year at the Dalongtan Golden Snub-Nosed Monkeys Protection and Research Center in Shennongjia National Nature Reserve, the center told local media Thursday.

"Golden snub-nosed monkeys, a kind of rare species in China, usually give birth from early March to late May every year," said Huang Tianpeng, director of the center, located in Central China's Hubei province, quoted in a Hubei Daily report.

"Each female usually gives birth to one baby once every two years, and the mother spends a year feeding its baby," he said.

Since the center began artificial feeding in the winter of 2005, an increasing monkey population has been attracted to the area. Each year since,all newborn monkeys have survived, Huang said.

After years of efforts from conservationists, along with improvements in the local environment, the number of golden snub-nosed monkeys at Shennongjia has increased to more than 1,300, twice as many as in the 1980s, according to the data from the center.