langur

langur, general name given to numerous species of Asian monkeys belonging to the subfamily Colobinae. The term is often restricted to nearly two dozen species of leaf monkeys but is also applied to various other members of the subfamily.

Leaf monkeys and other langurs are gregarious, diurnal, and basically arboreal monkeys with long tails and slender bodies. The limbs, hands, and feet are also long and slender. Depending on species, the head and body are about 40 to 80 cm (16 to 31 inches) long and the tail about 50 to 110 cm; weight varies from 5.5 kg (12 pounds) in the smallest species, the white-fronted langur (Presbytis frontata) of Borneo, up to 15 kg in the female and 19 kg in the male of the Himalayan langur (Semnopithecus schistaceus). Leaf monkeys have long fur, and many species have characteristic caps or crests of long hair. Colour varies among species but is commonly gray, red, brown, or black, and adults usually have black faces. The colour of the young, born singly after five to six months’ gestation, differs from that of adults and possibly serves to arouse the protective instincts of the adults. Mothers are protective but allow other females to help care for the young. Like the related colobus monkeys of Africa, langurs have large, complex stomachs adapted to a diet of leaves, fruit, and other vegetation.

The gray, or Hanuman, langur (S. entellus) of the Indian subcontinent is almost black when newborn and gray, tan, or brown as an adult. Regarded as sacred in Hinduism, it spends a good deal of time on the ground and roams at will in villages and temples of India and Nepal, raiding crops and the stores of merchants. The Hanuman langur usually lives in bands of about 20 to 30, though some troops number over 100. In some regions troops include several dominance-ranked adult males, though elsewhere there is only a single adult male per troop. In single-male troops, surplus males live in small bachelor bands that occasionally attempt to oust a troop leader. If successful, one of the bachelors takes over the troop and attempts to kill the unweaned infants in order to bring the females quickly back into estrus (mating condition).

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Leaf monkeys of genus Trachypithecus are also called brow-ridged langurs. They live in Southeast Asia from Bhutan and southern China to Java and are smaller and more arboreal than Hanuman langurs. The newborn are a bright golden colour. There are 10 to 15 species, including the beautiful golden langur (T. geei) from Bhutan, the spectacled langur (T. obscurus) from the Malay Peninsula, with white eye rings and pink muzzle, and a group of black langurs with white markings on the head and body, including François’ langur (T. francoisi) and its relatives, which live in the limestone country of northern Vietnam, Laos, and parts of southeastern China (Kwangsi). The purple-faced langur (T. vetulus) of Sri Lanka and the rare Nilgiri langur (T. johnii) of southern India may be more closely related to the Hanuman.

Leaf monkeys of the genus Presbytis are confined to Malaysia and western Indonesia, where they are mostly known by the local name surili; brow-ridged langurs of this region are generally called lutung. Most of the 10 or so Presbytis species are white on the underside and on the inner aspect of the thigh, contrasting sharply with the dark upper side. The newborn are white with a thick dark line from crown to rump and another at right angles across the shoulders (“cruciger” pattern). Most species live in small territorial groups of one male and two to four females with their young, but one, the joja (P. potenziani) of the Mentawai Islands of Indonesia, is unique among Old World monkeys in that it always lives in monogamous pairs.

The three genera of langurs commonly called leaf monkeys are Presbytis, Trachypithecus, and Semnopithecus; other langurs belong to the genera Pygathrix, Rhinopithecus, Nasalis, and Simias and include the proboscis monkey and simakobu. Several species are endangered. Langurs and colobus monkeys make up the subfamily Colobinae of the Old World monkey family, Cercopithecidae.