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A GORGEOUS flash of gold against a black and white backdrop, you’d think this golden snub-nosed monkey would be hard to miss. Unfortunately, it is rare to spot Rhinopithecus roxellana in its native China, where it is .

“I was lucky to find this golden monkey,” says photographer , who was trekking the Qinling Mountains of China’s Shaanxi province searching for pandas when he came across it. “By the time I had taken a few pictures, it was gone.”

They may be shy around humans, but golden snub-nosed monkeys are social animals, and live in groups of up to 500 individuals. They are most likely to be glimpsed in the trees, like this one, where they swing from the branches.

“I was on steep bamboo hills, and it was quite cold,” recalls Klum. “It was the only colourful thing, really.” The animals’ beautiful fur makes them prime targets for poachers, but their biggest threat is habitat loss, he says. Commercial logging, even of dead trees, can rob the monkeys of their home and food source.

When Klum first exhibited this photograph in China, he recalls audience members being moved to tears. “It’s a sacred animal in China,” he says. “It has a very human-like face and looks like a god.” Despite this, the monkey probably has , Roxellana, to thank for its Latin name.

The photograph appears in the book , by Klum and Johan ¸é´Ç³¦°ì²õ³Ù°ùö³¾, which details the consequences of human actions on biodiversity. “Humanity has become a geological force changing the planet at an unprecedented scale,” says , a resource management scientist at Stockholm University in Sweden. “The book combines science and photography to reach the rational and emotional, the brain and the heart.”