Yunnan golden snub-nosed monkeys, a species on the country's top protection list, were spotted in a nature reserve in southwest China's Yunnan Province.

Infrared cameras for the first time captured images of the wild animal in the Xiaruo Area in the Baima Snow Mountain National Nature Reserve.

Yunnan golden snub-nosed monkeys, numbering about 3,000, are a rare and endangered species unique to China. The mammal is under national first-class protection and listed as an endangered species on the Red List of Threatened Species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The species mainly lives in China's Tibet Autonomous Region and Yunnan Province, and more than 70 percent of its population inhabit the nature reserve.