Extinction .in

A conservation project to help

protect the rare Burmese snub-nosed monkey is one of 33 to get a share of UK

Government funding.

The species was photographed for the first time last year.

The project, led by Fauna and Flora International (FFI), will try to

establish how many of the monkeys are left and how best to protect them.

The money comes from a long-term scheme called the Darwin Initiative.

The Burmese snub-nosed monkey was described scientifically for the first time

in 2010 from a dead specimen collected by a local hunter.

In May 2011 researchers working in northern Burma captured the first pictures

of the species in its natural habitat.

A team from FFI, Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association (Banca),

and People Resources and Conservation Foundation (PRCF) took the images using

camera traps.

 

The monkey gets its name from its distinctive up-turned face.

 

Conservationists believe numbers have fallen to around

300 but little is known about the monkeys.

Dr Stephen Browne, senior programme manager for the Asia-Pacific region at

FFI, said: "That we could be faced with losing a species almost as soon as it is

discovered seems almost unthinkable.

"Yet this could very well be what the future holds for the Myanmar (Burmese)

snub-nosed monkey unless we take swift and decisive action to conserve it," he

told BBC News.

The new funding will pay for fieldwork to find out more about the species

including distribution, behaviour and threats. That will involve a

community-based monitoring scheme.

Conservationists will use the information to set up an action plan to protect

the species.

The project is one of 33 initiatives to share £8.5m of funding from the

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

The Darwin Initiative was set up 20 years ago to support conservation

projects around the world.

Prof David Macdonald, who chairs the committee that advises ministers on

which schemes to fund said: "The Darwin Initiative is hugely important and lies

at the cutting edge of conservation worldwide. Internationally it is respected

and valued as Britain's flagship for conservation."

Another scheme that will get funding is a project to manage threats to

Tanzania's large carnivores, including lions, leopards and cheetahs.

The world's largest amphibian, the Chinese giant salamander, will also get

extra help. Though it is a protected species, the salamander - which can grow to

50kg (110lb) - is threatened by illegal hunting.