Inbreeding of Francois' Leaf Monkey, a special monkey species in southwest China, would be hard to avoid if the aging problem is not dealt with timely, a zoologist has warned.

 

 

Aging is menacing reproduction ability of 97 artificially-bred Francois leaf monkeys, also known as black leaf monkey, in the Wuzhou breeding center in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said Liu Changhang, deputy head of the breeding center.

 

"The age of ten means the threshold for middle or old age for black leaf monkeys and over 73 percent of the monkeys in the center passed this age," said Liu.

 

Among this group of black leaf monkeys, 35 percent belong to two different species and 64 percent have close blood relations with the two species, Liu said.

 

"We are in urgent need of bringing new monkey species into the center to improve their blood ties," said Liu.

 

Liu said his center plans to introduce 20 black leaf monkeys into the center from southwestern Guizhou Province, which is the largest habitat of black leaf monkeys in the world with a population of approximately 1,000 Francois' leaf monkeys at large.

 

(Xinhua News Agency December 30, 2005)