[5] Snow occurs frequently within its range, and it can withstand colder average temperatures better than any other non-human primate.

[8] Its diet varies markedly with the seasons, but it is primarily a herbivore with lichens being its main food source.

[1] Biologists presently identify three subspecies of this monkey,[3] which can be distinguished primarily by the length of their tails, as well as by certain skeletal and dental features.

[1] The dense human settlement of much of eastern Sichuan and the Han River valley of southern Shaanxi creates geographical separation between the three subspecies.

Adult males (estimated at over 7 years of age) have large bodies covered with very long, golden guard hairs on their backs and cape area.

After pregnancy, it is common to observe infants and newborns hanging beneath the abdomen of females when they are climbing or walking.

The rest of their body (dorsum, crown to nape, cape, arms and outer thighs) hair is brown.

Golden hairs in the dorsum or cape area are not recognizable nor is the median brown crest present in subadult to adult females and males.

[5] They are also observed clinging from the front of their mothers (primarily the lower abdomen) for protection, feeding, and nurturing.

The distribution of the golden snub-nosed monkey is limited to temperate forests on mountains in four provinces in China: Sichuan, Gansu, Shaanxi, and Hubei.

[13] When faced with danger from a predator such as the northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis), the young are placed at the center of the group while the stronger adult males go to the scene of the alarm.

However, in a detailed observation of the free-ranging band in the Qinling Mountains in central China, results have suggested that winter night activity of Rhinopithecus roxellana is a compromise between antipredator and thermoregulatory strategies and an adaptation to ecological conditions of their temperate habitat.

[15] Keeping warm is critical for survival in freezing temperatures, but their thick coats can provide this warmth as well as sleeping in these clusters.

The thermoregulatory hypothesis suggests that a primary function of sleeping in clusters is the conservation of heat during cold temperatures.

[15] Along with thermoregulation, safety from predators is an important principle underlying the formation of sleeping clusters in primates.

This antipredation hypothesis suggest that increased cohesion and large sleeping congregations might facilitate predator detection and enhance group defense.

[17] The Sichuan snub-nosed monkey is a seasonal breeding species of colobine endemic to China, and lives in a multi-level social system.

Because the basic social and reproductive unit is the harem or one male unit (OMU), which consists of a single resident male, a number of adult females, sub-adult females, juveniles and infants, it has been suggested that sexual competition in this polygynous species is skewed.

[18] For this seasonal variation, the amount of lichens consumed appears to decrease in the summer with the greater availability of fruit or seeds.

The monkeys' preferred lichen species seem to grow on Cerasus discadenia, Salix wallichiana, and Malus halliana.

[18] Even though they primarily forage in the trees and sometimes on the ground, they have several predators, including both mammals, such as dhole (Cuon alpinus), wolf (Canis lupus), Asiatic golden cat (Catopuma temmincki), and leopard (Panthera pardus), and birds, like golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) and northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis).

Although they feed, forage, rest and travel together in a coordinated manner, members of different OMUs within the breeding band rarely engage in social interactions.

The all-male band is composed of 1–3 AMUs that are socially distinct from each other but coordinate their activities in close spatial proximity.

Outside Mainland China, only Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea currently keep golden-snub nosed monkeys.