BEIJING, Mar. 28 -- A male snub-nosed monkey from the Shenzhen Safari Park was sent to the Guangzhou Zoo in exchange for a female snub-nosed monkey from the zoo Thursday to avoid inbreeding.

    After about one month of negotiations, workers from the Shenzhen Safari Park and Guangzhou Zoo finally found sexual partners in each zoo for the snub-nosed monkeys, also called golden monkeys.

    This was the first time that exchanges had been successfully arranged for State first-class protected animals in the country¡¯s zoos, organizers said.

    Born March 28, 2000, the male snub-nosed monkey from the Shenzhen Safari Park was nicknamed Wangwang.

    The Shenzhen Safari Park introduced a pair of snub-nosed monkeys when the zoo was founded in 1993. Since then, eight male monkeys had been born to them.

    To avoid inbreeding, workers at the safari park began to look for female partners in some major zoos throughout the country at the beginning of the year.

    They finally located a 4-year-old female, nicknamed Maomao, at the Guangzhou Zoo.

    The Guangzhou Zoo now has a total of four snub-nosed monkeys, only one of them male.

    When workers at the Guangzhou Zoo learned of the exchange with the Shenzhen Safari Park, they gave their support.

    Snub-nosed monkeys usually mature after six to eight years. The female snub-nosed monkey usually bears one offspring after about 180 days of gestation.

    Wild snub-nosed monkeys can now be found in deep forests in the southwestern provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou.

(Source: Shenzzhen Daily)