Photo taken on Oct. 21, 2009 shows two snub-nose monkeys resting in the Baima Snow Mountain State Nature Reserve, Deqen of Yunnan Province.  

The number of snub-nose monkey, an endangered species of primate in the Cercopithecidae family, has risen to 600 in the past 20 years in the Mangkam Snub-nose Monkey Nature Reserve of Tibet.

According to the Forest Bureau of Mangkam, the number of snub-nose monkey kept increasing since the set up of the Mangkam Sunb-nosed Monkey Nature Reserve.

Tang Yang, vice head of the Forest Bureau of Mangkam, said there were about 2,000 snub-nose monkeys living in the region of Mangkam Hongla Mountain of Chamdo between the 1960s and "70s, but due to the uncontrolled hunting, it decreased to 50 in the early 1990s.

Moreover, the existing snub-nose monkeys live in a state of separation, which influences the propagation.

After the establishment of the Mangkam Snub-nosed Monkey Nature Reserve, the endangered snub-nose monkey was put under effective protection with a series of measure taken and the improving of people's consciousness of protecting animals.

In the past 20 years, snub-nose monkeys and rhesus monkeys in the nature reserve have increased to 600 and more than 1,000 respectively.

"The number is expected to exceed 1,000 with effective protection measures," said Tang Yang.

The Mangkam Hongla Mountain became a nature reserve at county level in 1986 and was upgraded to Mangkam State Snub-nosed Monkey Nature Reserve in 2003.

Covering an area of 1,853 square meters and situating at an altitude between 3,500 and 4,500 meters, it aims to protect the forest and wildlife, including the snub-nose monkey, clouded leopard, snow leopard and Tibetan yak under the first state protection level.

In China, the snub-nose monkey mainly distributes in Deqen of Yunnan Province and Mangkam of Tibet with around 2,000 reported so far within China. They inhabit in mountain forests up to a height of 4000 m, in the winter moving into the deeply secluded regions.

These monkeys get their name from the short, stump of a nose on their round face, with nostrils arranged forward.