Is it illegal for an individual to keep a monkey privately?
Monkeys are the most highly evolved group in the animal kingdom, with well-developed brains, forward-facing eye sockets, narrow interorbital spacing, separated toes (fingers) on the hands and feet, flexible thumbs, most able to oppose the other toes (fingers), limbs capable of using simple tools and grasping food, mostly omnivorous, eating plant-based or animal-based food, with varying choices of food and feeding methods. Let's take a look below at whether keeping a monkey is illegal!
Is it illegal to keep a monkey?
Keeping a monkey is illegal. However, an individual is not completely unable to keep a monkey. If you obtain a "Wildlife Domestication and Breeding License" from the local forestry management department, you can keep monkey species under national second-class protection or below. It should be noted that monkeys are animals with great emotional fluctuations; if kept in a cage, they lose the meaning of being a pet. If kept on a leash, good monkey-training skills are required, otherwise escape and injury to people are likely. Therefore, there are currently not many people who keep monkeys as pets; please consider carefully.
National second-class protected monkeys
1. Stump-tailed macaque: The stump-tailed macaque, also called the red-faced macaque, is a relatively large species of macaque, inhabiting primary broadleaf forests, mixed coniferous-broadleaf forests, or bamboo forest zones at 1500-3000 m. It is fairly omnivorous, feeding on wild fruits, leaves, and bamboo shoots, and also preying on small animals such as crabs and frogs. The stump-tailed macaque is listed in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) 2013 Red List of Threatened Species ver3.1——Vulnerable (VU), is also listed in the Washington Convention CITES Appendix II protected animals, and is also a national second-class protected animal in China.
2. Rhesus macaque: The rhesus macaque inhabits a wide range of environments, including grasslands, swamps, and all kinds of forests. It mainly lives in dense forests or sparse forested rocky hills on stone cliffs, beside streams and gullies, and along riverbanks, living in groups. Groups form large troops of a dozen or even several hundred individuals. It feeds on leaves, tender twigs, wild vegetables, and also eats small birds, bird eggs, various insects, and preys on other small animals. The rhesus macaque is listed in China's "List of National Key Protected Wild Animals" as a national second-class protected animal, listed in the "China Red Data Book of Endangered Animals · Mammals" as a vulnerable species, and listed in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) 2008 Red List of Threatened Species ver3.1——Least Concern (LC).
3. Tibetan macaque: The Tibetan macaque is the largest species in China's genus Macaca, inhabiting rocky habitats in mountainous broadleaf forest areas, living in groups composed of 10-odd or 20-30 individuals, with each group having 2-3 adult male monkeys as leaders; when encountering enemies, the leader guards at the rear of the troop. It likes to be active on the ground and spends the night in crevices of cliff walls, on steep cliffs, or in large trees. It feeds on the leaves, buds, fruits, and branches of various plants as well as bamboo shoots, and also eats birds, bird eggs, insects, and other animal-based food. The Tibetan macaque is listed in China's "List of National Key Protected Animals" as a second-class protected animal, and is listed in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) 2013 Red List of Threatened Species ver3.1——Near Threatened (NT).
National first-class protected monkeys
1. Snub-nosed monkey: There are 6 species of snub-nosed monkeys, namely the Myanmar snub-nosed monkey, the Nujiang snub-nosed monkey, the Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkey, the Yunnan snub-nosed monkey, the Guizhou snub-nosed monkey, and the Tonkin snub-nosed monkey, among which all except the Myanmar snub-nosed monkey and the Tonkin snub-nosed monkey are precious animals endemic to China. It is listed in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) 2012 Red List of Threatened Species ver3.1——Endangered, and is also a national first-class protected animal.
2. Slow loris: The slow loris is a monkey of the genus Nycticebus in the order Primates, with 9 subspecies. It is relatively small in size and slow-moving, a rather primitive type of monkey, inhabiting tropical rainforests and subtropical monsoon forests, living entirely in trees, rarely coming down to the ground, and preferring to be active alone. It moves especially slowly, speeding up only when attacked, hence it is also called the "lazy monkey." It is distributed in Yunnan and southern Guangxi, and mostly in Southeast Asia, and is a national first-class protected animal.
3. Assamese macaque: The Assamese macaque is a monkey of the genus Macaca in the order Primates, similar in size to the rhesus macaque. It mainly inhabits monsoon evergreen broadleaf forests, deciduous broadleaf forests, mixed coniferous-broadleaf forests, or high-mountain dark coniferous forests, feeding mainly on wild fruits and fresh twigs and tender leaves of plants, and also eating some insects, amphibians, and small birds.
4. Formosan macaque: The Formosan macaque is endemic to China, with a body shape very similar to the rhesus macaque, but grayer in body and darker in tail. Their tails all exceed one-half of their body length, though the Formosan macaque's tail is proportionally somewhat longer, and it is also smaller and fatter than the rhesus macaque. It inhabits rock walls and mountain forests, is a semi-terrestrial animal, and feeds on various wild fruits, leaves, and insects, and sometimes also steals grain and melons from farmers.
5. Pig-tailed macaque: The pig-tailed macaque has a body length of 54-62 cm, is relatively stout in build, has a flat crown, and has radially arranged dark brown crown hair. It inhabits tropical and subtropical forests or lower-elevation coniferous forests, lives an arboreal life, likes to live in groups, feeds on plant fruits, and also preys on insects and small birds.
6. Langur: China has 6 species of langurs, namely the black langur, the white-headed langur, the long-tailed langur, Phayre's langur, the capped langur, and the white-rumped langur, all of which are national first-class protected animals of China. They originated in Europe; their ancestors went from Europe through Africa to Asia, first entering Southeast Asia, and then along river valleys or lowlands entered the subtropical forests with tropical karst landforms in South China and Southwest China, that is, surviving and reproducing in their current distribution areas and forming dominant populations.
7. Gibbon: The gibbon is a national first-class protected animal, named for its long forearms. It has 44 chromosomes and is the smallest kind of ape, as well as one of the quickest and most agile in movement. Together with the three kinds of orangutans, it is called one of the "four great apes." There are currently 7 species in the world, and China has 5 species of gibbons, namely the lar gibbon, the hoolock gibbon, the Hainan black-crested gibbon, the black gibbon, and the white-cheeked gibbon.