Going Ape

The Japanese Macaque (Macaca fuscata), also known as the snow monkey, is a terrestrial Old World monkey species that is native to Japan. They are colloquially referred to as "snow monkeys" because some live in areas where snow covers the ground for months each year. No other non-human primate is more northern-living, nor lives in a colder climate.

Here is a small selection of stamps show the Japanese Macaque.

Japanese macaques swimming in the hot spring of Nagano prefecture, issued by Japan, 1989.

Japanese macaque, stamps from Tajikistan, Yugoslavia and Maldives Islands.



Japanese macaques in Minoo Falls, Meiji Forests, Quasi-national park, Japanese woodblock print (shin-hanga) by Hiroshi Yoshida (1876–1950), issued by Japan in 1973. Here is the stamp and a maxicard.

Snow monkeys - with China's golden snub-nosed monkeys, the primates living most northerly, surviving on bark in winter and staying warm cuddling together - the hot spring bathing is an acquired habit, people threw food in the spring and the monkeys retrieved it; hot spring bathing is not a common habit or behaviour across Japan.

Let me add a few of my selections:

This is an FDC with an issue that is local, from Oita, one of Japan's "prefectures", from 1989





Next is a national issue, one of a 2005 series of Japanese flowers and animals:





Last,a stamp with a brush painting of monkeys in cherry blossoms by Mori Sosen (1747-1821).



Sosen is very much admired and imitated but his delicate brushwork of the fur and above all, his knowledge of the animals' facial expressions and behaviour which he studied all his life make his picture easy to recognize :

Tashkent Zoo, issued by Uzbekistan on February 12, 2010:

- Toque Macaque (Macaca sinica)
- Crab-eating Macaque (Macaca fascicularis)
- Mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx)
- Ring-tailed Lemur (Lemur catta)

Monkeys on UN CITES stamps (I)

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is a multilateral treaty established to protect endangered plants and animals. Its primary aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild fauna and flora does not threaten their survival in the wild. Today, CITES provides varying degrees of protection to more than 35,000 species of animals and plants worldwide.

To promote awareness of CITES and its conservation mission, Poland issued in 2001 a souvenir sheet (SS) featuring the CITES logo alongside several endangered species protected under the Convention, including a monkey species.

The United Nations issued numerous stamp sets highlighting endangered species protected by CITES. Typically consisting of four stamps per set, these issues depict a wide range of threatened wildlife, including several endangered monkey species. The stamps were released by the United Nations Postal Administration offices in New York, Geneva, and Vienna, and the CITES logo appears in the sheet margin as part of the design. I will show most of them in this thread.

Mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei), issued by the UN Geneva office on March 3, 1993.


Golden lion Tamarin (Leontopithecus rosalia), issued by the UN Geneva office on March 18, 1994.


Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), issued by the UN NY office on March 18, 1994.

Thanks Laophil - those UN issues of their Endangered Species Series have often featured monkeys but in recent years have extended to plants and flowers as well as invertebrates.

In 2007, all three UN postal agencies issued sets of 4 primates stamps. Here they are on an FDC, as blocks of 4, each block with its local cancel:





The species illustrated are:
Vienna Office:
Green monkey (Chlorocebus aethiops)
Proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus)
Hamadryas baboon (Papio hamadryas)
Patas Monkey (Erythrocebus patas)

Geneva Office:
Gelada baboon (Theropithecus gelada)
De Brazza's guenon (Cercopithecus neglectus)
Variegated lemur (Varecia variegata)
Silver gibbon (Hylobates moloch)

New York Office:
Drill (Mandrillus leucophaeus)
Squirrel monkey (Saimiri sciureus)
Ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta)
Collared mangabey (Cercopithecus torquatus)

Monkeys on UN CITES stamps (II)

Thank you very much, Cobie, for sharing the joint FDC of the three offices. With time, I will post the individual stamps.

Here are another three CITES primate stamps and blocks.

Red-shanked Douc (Pygathrix nemaeus), issued by the UN Vienna office on March 24, 1995.


Barbary Macaque (Macaca sylvanus), issued by the UN Vienna office on March 13, 1997.


Tibetan Macaque (Macaca thibetana), issued by the UN Geneva office on March 13, 1998.

Thanks Laophil, I like the UN stamps. As well, they always have a special "silk" FDC as well as beautiful maxicards and envelopes with single stamps and a colour picture of the species on them. Here is a species that was also on a UN stamps, the red uakari with its bald head and red fur. There is also a subspecies with white fur:






This is National Geographic picture, could not find more details ...

There is a third species, the golden backed one, first described, I think, by the famous Alexander von Humboldt (who had one as a pet).

From the Wisconsin Primate Centre website https://primate.wisc.edu/primate-in...heet-uakari/

Monkeys on UN CITES stamps (IV)

Thank you very much, Cobie, for sharing the Uakari stamps. I have several stamps depicting this gentle species.

Here are another three CITES primate stamps and blocks.

Orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus), issued by UN Vienna office on April 22, 1999.


Pygmy Chimpanzee, Bonobo (Pan paniscus), issued by the UN NY office on April 6, 2000.


Mantled Guereza (Colobus guereza), issued by the UN NY office on February 1, 2001.

Monkeys on UN CITES stamps (V)

Here are another three CITES primate stamps and blocks.

Silvery Langur (Trachypithecus cristatus), issued by the UN Vienna office on February 1, 2001.


Lion-tailed Macaque (Macaca silenus), issued by the UN Geneva office on January 29, 2004.


Golden Snub-nosed Monkey (Pygathrix roxellana), issued by the UN NY office on January 29, 2004.

Monkeys on UN CITES stamps (VI)

Collared Mangabey (Cercocebus torquatus), issued by the UN Vienna office on January 29, 2004.


Cotton-top Tamarin (Saguinus oedipus), issued by the UN NY office on April 19, 2012.


Siamang Gibbon (Hylobates syndactylus), issued by the UN Vienna office in 2002.

Monkeys on UN CITES stamps (VII)

In year 2007, The UN CITES sets of stamps from the three UN offices dedicated to monkeys. The sets were issued on March 15, 2007 and all 12 of them were designed by the talented American artist John Rowe. Cobie already posted the three sets on FDC.

Here are the 2007 UN CITES stamps issued by Geneva office.

- Gelada Baboon (Theorpithecus gelada)
- De Brazza's Monkey (Cercopithecus neglectus)
- Ruffed Lemur (Varecia variegate)
- Javan Gibbon (Hylobates moloch)

Thanks for that series of UN stamps, Laophil.

Here is a slightly unusual stamps from Nigeria from a set of 6 of "Art and Nature"
One of the "Nature" stamps is
N50
"Monkey Colony in Lagwa-Mbaise, Imo State"
Sclater's guenon (Cercopithecus sclateri)

All stamps in the set also have a small, square hologram but it is not clear what it is, at least to me!

Monkeys on UN CITES stamps (VIII)

Many thanks, Cobie! still don't have stamps of this monkey species.

Here are the 2007 UN CITES stamps issued by NY office.

- Drill (Mandrillus leucophaeus)
- Common Squirrel Monkey (Saimiri sciureus)
- Ring-tailed Lemur (Lemur catta)
- Collared Mangabey (Cercocebus torquatus)

Monkeys on UN CITES stamps (IX)

Here are the 2007 UN CITES stamps issued by Vienna office.

- Chacma Baboon (Papio ursinus)
- Grivet (Chlorocebus aethiops)
- Proboscis Monkey (Nasalis larvatus)
- Common Patas Monkey (Erythrocebus patas)

Monkeys on CITES stamps (X)

The upper set is the last one I have in my collection. There are several I still missing and there are stamps show prosimians which I posted in the thread devoted to this group of primates ("Prosimians - Show Your Lemur, Galago, Potto And Other Prosimians On Stamps").

There are other items related to CITES. Here they are.

The 17th Conference of Parties to CITES (CITES COP17) held in Johannesburg, South Africa. To publicize the conference, the UN issued three sets of stamps, a set in each UN office, show endangered animals. Here is the set issued by UN Geneva office on September 24, 2016 shows mountains gorilla with baby:

the 8th COP (Conference of the Parties) to CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), Chimpanzee, issued by Japan in year 2000.


I have several different FDC's of the sets I posted in the above posts. Each with special commemorative postmark. Here is on for example from 2007 features the Brazza monkey.