Until recently it was thought that the night monkey is the only monkey in the world that moves about at night. Dr. Chia Tan and her Fanjingshan National Nature Reserve collaborators, Mr. Yeqin Yang and Mr. Kefeng Niu published a paper in Primates that proves otherwise. Their revolutionary findings are based on their latest research of free-ranging Guizhou snub-nosed monkeys using camera traps. The images captured by the cameras unequivocally showed that the monkeys, though largely diurnal, extended their activity beyond daylight hours throughout the year. To explain why the monkeys were up at night, the team suggests that taking on the “night shift” may allow the monkeys to snug in extra food and to build up their energy reserve as a buffer against the harsher months in Fanjingshan. In short, eat while you can because there may not be much food available come winter time.
