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| Fauna : Common Langur (Semnopithecus entellus) |
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IUCN Status : Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 Schedule II CITES:
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Head & Body weight : 50 - 100 cms
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Tail : 70 - 110 cms |
Weight : Male: 9 - 20 Kgs Female : 7.5 - 18 Kgs |
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Description
Common in the forests and also around habitation, this silver gray monkey
with a tail longer than its body, a conspicuous black face, long limbs
with both hands and feet black in colour, is easy to recognise. Males
are larger than females and the new born are pink in colour.
The coughing
alarm call of the langur is often the first indicator of the presence
of a predator. Although they are preyed upon by Tigers (Panthera
tigris), it is the Leopard (Panthera pardus) that is their
arch enemy in the forests and langur react to its close presence with
a violent, almost hysterical mobbing behaviour. |
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A conspicuous monkey, Common
Langurs are widespread with 16 sub-species recognised throughout South
Asia. Their range extends from as high as over 3500m in the Himalayas
to the scrub forests of Western Rajasthan and throughout the deciduous
forests of peninsular India. They do not inhabit evergreen forests. They
are quite often seen in proximity to human habitation and are a prominent
feature of some cities and many small towns throughout India. |
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A very arboreal monkey, Langurs spend most of their time feeding
on leaves, flowers, fruits and berries. They are programmed to eat
rapidly, often indiscriminately, depending upon bacteria in their
fore-stomachs to break down any toxins they may have ingested. This
is perhaps the reason for the wide success and distribution of this
species. They also obtain salt, mineral and trace elements by licking
rocks, termite mounds and salt licks. Being wasteful feeders, they
drop large quantities of food to the forest floor, which is picked
up by deer feeding below. This association is often considered to
be symbiotic (mutualism) but studies in Kanha have shown that in the overwhelming majority of cases it is the
deer that initiate the association and not the langur indicating
that the benefits largely accrue to the deer and not significantly
to the monkeys. |
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Most
feeding activity takes place in the morning and late afternoon,
with the monkeys resting during the hotter part of the day.
At this time, troop members groom each other, and this activity
serves the purpose of cleaning one other, reinforcing bonds
and establishing social hierarchy.The morning activity normally
commences with loud whooping calls which are also emitted
in greeting or when they break out into a sudden display
of high spirits or nervousness,chasing each other in tremendous
leaps, bounding off tree |
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trunks, fallen branches and even rocks. The 'whoop' is audible
over a long distance, often over a kilometre. |
Langur
live in troops that vary from 8 - 20 animals, has a mixed composition
(of all ages and sexes) and is lead by a dominant male. All male
or bachelor groups are also a common feature. Males from these
bachelor groups are forever on the lookout for an opportunity
to challenge the dominant male of a mixed troop and take over
his harem. When this happens, and the dominant male is ousted,
the new male indulges in infanticide, killing unweaned infants
to ensure that the females come into oestrous again, so as to
propagate his own genes. |
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Langur troops have a home range which can vary between 1.3 sq.km
to 13 sq.km. They generally have a favourite roosting tree, to
which the animals retire at the end of the day. The monkeys huddle
together and prefer to squat on the extremities of the branches,
as a precautionary measure against predators. |
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Females attain sexual maturity (3-4 years) earlier than males
(6-7years). The breeding season varies greatly across the range
and the young are born after a gestation period of 6 months. As
a rule, one young is born and the arrival of the early ones in
a troop causes much excitement, with females of all age groups
vying with each other to touch and handle the new born. The mother
readily allows this and sometimes the infant gets passed on from
hand to hand. The mother keeps a careful watch and will instantly
retrieve the baby specially if it starts squealing. The young
are carried upside down clasped to their mother's belly.
The
infants start sampling food plants by the age of 3 months and
are independent enough by that age to wander a short distance
from their mother and indulge in vigorous play with other young
members of the troop. They are weaned between 10 and 15 months
when the female stops lactating, by which time the young are also
independent of their mother. Normally by the age of two and the
arrival of a new baby the juveniles' ties with the mother are
completely cut. |
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1.
Newton, P. N.1984: Infanticide and Social Change in Forest Grey
Langurs, Presbytis entellus, in Kanha Tiger Reserve, India - Int.
J. Primatol. ; 5(4):366. Aug. 1984. Abstract only.
2. Newton, Paul 1994: Socail Stability and change among forest Hanuman
Langurs (Presbytis entellus)- Primates ; 35(4):489-498.
3. Rajpurohit, Lal Singh; Volker Sommer and S. M. Mohnot 1995: Wanderers
between harems and bachelor bands:male Hanuman Langurs(Presbytis
entellus) at Jodhpur in Rajasthan - Behaviour ; 132(3-4):255-299
4. Agoramoorthy, Govindasamy 1994: Adult male replacement and Social
Change in two troops of Hanuman Langurs (Presbytis entellus) at
Jodhpur, India - Intl. J. Primatol. ; 15(2):225-238.
5. Newton, Paul N.1985: The behavioural ecology of forest Hanuman
Langurs -Tigerpaper ; 12(3):3-7.
6. Sommer, V. and S. M. Mohnot 1985: New observations on infanticides
among Hanuman Langurs (Presbytis entellus) near Jodhpur (Rajasthan/India)-
Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. ; 16(3):245-248. |
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