Correo Uruguayo, the national postal service in Uruguay, released a Chinese zodiac stamp on Jan 19 to mark the Year of the Rabbit and the 35th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

According to Rafael Navarrine, director of the postal service, it's the 10th year in a row that they have designed and released a Chinese zodiac stamp.

Wang Gang, China's ambassador to Uruguay, said during the launch ceremony that the Chinese embassy in Uruguay is willing to work with Correo Uruguayo to jointly carry out people-to-people exchange projects under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative and raise the strategic partnership between the two countries to a new level.

The stamp design is based on a rare photo of the Ili pika, an endangered species belonging to the rabbit family and endemic to Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

It was taken by local wildlife conservation expert Li Weidong in 2014. Li discovered and named the species in the 1980s.

The small, fluffy mammal, around 20 centimeters long, has bright fur, big round ears, and brown mottled fur on its forehead and neck, and lives in the bare rocks with an altitude between 2,800 and 4,100 meters at the Tianshan Mountains.

In 2021, China listed Ili pika as being under second-grade State protection.