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| Its long tail enables the
Phayre's langur to effectively maintain balance while moving
around on branches. |
Story and pictures by PANOMPRAI
PONGCHAIYAPHUM
As always, the rainy season
had cast a magical spell on the forest. Trees and plants were
sprouting lush new leaves and shoots. Animals across the food web
were entering months of abundance.
It was early in the morning, and I was accompanying a team of
researchers along a jungle trail in Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary,
Chaiyaphum province. To catch up with the Phayre's langur, the
subject of the study, before the animals wandered off to forage,
we had left our camp well before dawn. We had been watching them
the whole of the previous day, just as we had done many times over
the past three years.
Before long, we arrived at the hill-evergreen forest where we had
seen the langurs retire the previous evening. Yet they were
nowhere to be seen. We scanned the area with our eyes and ears,
checking out every rustling on the treetops that might reveal
their presence.
As we expanded our search into adjacent areas, we found a big tree
on the mountain ridge with bits of fresh leaves strewn on the
ground around its trunk.
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| Thirst is one of the very
few reasons that langurs come down from the trees. |
``These animals forage so early. It's still
cold out here,'' murmured one of the researchers. Then a fellow
ranger tapped my shoulder and told me in a quick whisper: ``Look
over there, behind that thick foliage!''
On the crown of a tree about 20 metres away, a number of the
animals were moving about along the leafy branches, easily
identifiable with their long tails and the white rings around
their eyes and lips.
Looking through the binoculars I counted the 21 members of the
group, which included an infant that had been born in late
February. Some of the langurs watched us, too. Others didn't
bother _ after three years, they had become quite used to seeing
us around.
Like the other three species of langur found in Thailand, the
Phayre's langur feed mainly on leaves, buds and fruits. (That's
why they're also called leaf monkeys.)
Langurs don't have cheek pouches to store unchewed food, like
macaques do. They move about in the canopy with all four legs,
jumping from one branch to another instead of swinging their way
around like gibbons.
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| Female members of the
group help take care of a newborn. The baby's bright orange
fur will turn grey as it grows older. |
The natural range of the Phayre's langur
covers from southern China to Burma, Laos, Vietnam and the upper
half of Thailand. These days, they are a threatened species and
can be found only in a few well-protected forests like Phu Khieo.
They live in groups of between five and 30 members.
Like other langurs, Phayre's langur rarely come down from the
trees, except when they need water or additional minerals from a
salt lick.
When moving from one tree to another, the group follows their
leader, the dominant male, in a line. Every now and then, when the
leader feels that an animal in the back is lagging too far behind,
it signals the entire group to wait.
Other than maintaining order among group members, the ruling male
also has the responsibility of protecting the group's territory
from other langurs. In return, it has the right to mate with every
female under its control. However, this doesn't mean that other
males do not have the chance to mate. They just have to get
together with females secretly, behind the leader's back.
Interestingly, the researchers have found that although these
primates seem to mate all year round, pregnancies occur only
during the rainy season, from May to July. The gestation period
lasts about six months and pregnant females give birth to a single
baby between November and February.
For the first three months of their lives, the young ones sport
bright orange fur. As they grow up they turn grey like their
parents.
During the group's foraging rounds, the baby langur clings tightly
to its mother's chest. It stays close to her when she rests.
Often, other adult females step in to help take care of the kid
when the mother needs a break.
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| Other than predators,
gravity is a danger for sleeping langurs. That's why this
fellow is making sure it's hanging on to something as it
sleeps. |
Other than feeding, another major activity
of the Phayre's langur is grooming. The animals take turns
grooming one another, searching through the fur for ticks, mites
and other parasites. Apart from health benefits, this behaviour is
believed to help strengthen the bonds between group members.
Around 11:30am, as the sun became stronger and their stomachs were
full, the group decided to rest, looking for comfortable branches
where they could lay down on their bellies and let their limbs
dangle down freely. Some played it safe by grasping a branch to
make sure they wouldn't fall down in the middle of the siesta.
(See picture.)
While most of the group slept, a few young adults stayed up and
acted as security guards. After about an hour, everyone woke up
and resumed foraging. At around 1pm or so, they took another nap,
this time longer than the first one. After waking up later in the
afternoon they continued feeding until the sun began to set.
Phayre's langur like to spend the night on trees growing on a
mountain ridge. They sleep on branches that are strong enough to
support their weight but not big enough to bear predators like
leopards that might try to sneak up on them during the dark.
When the langurs retired, it was time for us to do the same. We
would be back before dawn, to start another day on their trail.
