TAIYUAN, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Two men who allegedly hunted a wild rhesus monkey have been detained, police in north China's Shanxi Province said Sunday.
Police with the public security bureau of Yuncheng City were informed earlier this month that a car carrying a caged monkey was seized on an expressway in Yuanqu County.
Investigation showed that the two suspects, from Henan Province, drove to Shanxi Lishan national nature reserve. They hit a rhesus monkey with a tranquilizer dart and locked it in an iron cage.
They were intercepted by highway security staff on their way back to Henan.
Rhesus monkeys are a second-class nationally protected animal. The Lishan reserve has hundreds of rhesus monkeys living there.
The two men were detained for illegal hunting and transporting a precious and endangered wild animal.
