The species came to the attention of a team of scientists allied to the "Myanmar Primate Conservation Program"[9] who were researching the status of the hoolock gibbon.

[4] The specific name strykeri was given in honour of philanthropist Jon Stryker, president and founder of the Arcus Foundation, which also sponsored the project.

The specimen most closely examined was the skull (with mandible) and skin of a gutted adult male obtained from hunters in Pade, subsequently deposited in the Anthropological Institute and Museum of the University of Zürich.

Additional sample skulls of animals killed some three years earlier, one male and one female, were also collected along with a bag made out of the skin of a juvenile caught in January 2010, all obtained in Htantan village.

[3][6] A camera trap set by a team of FFI, BANCA and PRCF researchers captured the first known images of live snub-nosed monkeys in January 2012.

[3] The species spend summer months in temperate mixed forests at upper elevations of their range, and descend to lower ground in the winter to escape snow.

[17] When first discovered, the only known specimens existed in three or four groups within a 270 square kilometres (100 sq mi) range at 1,700 to 3,200 metres (5,600–10,500 ft) above sea level in the eastern Himalayas, in the north-eastern section of Kachin State, the northernmost part of Burma (Myanmar).

[19] On the morning of 16 October 2011, a forest guard at Gaoligongshan National Nature Reserve in China took photos of a group of snub-nosed monkeys which were later identified as R. strykeri.

[21] Deforestation due to logging operations,[9] isolation and hunting by local humans for food are considered dangers to the small extant population.

The snub-nosed group diverged from other Asian monkeys about 6.8-6 million years ago, and from Nasalis and Simia clade about 1.2 Ma.