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Nilgiri langur

Species of Old World monkey

Summary

Species of Old World monkey

The Nilgiri langur (Semnopithecus johnii) is an Asian langur of the Old World monkey. It has glossy, black fur and an orangey-golden brown, hair-like mane on its head. Females have a white patch of fur on the inner thigh. It typically lives in troops of nine to ten individuals, with or without offspring, depending on seasonality. Its diet consists of fruits, shoots and leaves. It is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List and is threatened by habitat destruction and poaching for its body parts, thought to supposedly contain aphrodisiac properties.

Taxonomy and classification

The classification of the Nilgiri langur has been disputed. Traditionally it has been placed within the genus Trachypithecus based on morphological similarities such as cranial morphology and neonatal pelage color, and within the Trachypithecus vetulus group within Trachypithecus based on a presumed close relationship with the purple-faced langur (Semnopithecus vetulus), which had formerly been classified as T. vetulus. DNA and other evidence suggests that the Nilgiri and purple-faced langurs are more closely related to the gray langurs, and have thus been reclassified within the genus Semnopithecus.

Description

Adult males have a head-to-body length of 78–80 cm and adult females of 58–60 cm; their tails are 68.5-96.5 cm long. Males weigh 9.1-14.8 kg and females 10.9–12 kg.

Distribution

The Nilgiri langur is native to the Nilgiri Hills of South India, where it occurs at elevations of 300-2000 m in the states of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Behaviour and ecology

The gestation period is not precisely known but assumed to be 200 days.

References

Singh, M.. (2020). "''Semnopithecus johnii''".
"''Semnopithecus johnii'' (J.Fischer, 1829)".
Brandon–Jones, D.. (2004). "Asian Primate Classification". International Journal of Primatology.
(2008). "Phylogenetic position of the langur genera Semnopithecus and Trachypithecus among Asian colobines, and genus affiliations of their species groups". BMC Evolutionary Biology.
(2008). "Molecular phylogeny and biogeography of langurs and leaf monkeys of South Asia (Primates: Colobinae)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.
(2012). "Handbook of the Mammals of the World, Volume 3: Primates". Lynx Edicions.
Wang, X.P.. (2012). "Phylogenetic Relationships among the Colobine Monkeys Revisited: New Insights from Analyses of Complete mt Genomes and 44 Nuclear Non-Coding Markers". PLOS ONE.
(2011). "Indian National Studbook of Nilgiri Langur (''Trachypithecus johnii'')". [[Wildlife Institute of India]], Dehradun and [[Central Zoo Authority]], New Delhi.
(2020). "The Gazette of India". Government of India.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

semnopithecus primates-of-south-asia monkeys-in-india mammals-of-tamil-nadu mammals-of-india fauna-of-the-western-ghats endemic-fauna-of-the-western-ghats vulnerable-fauna-of-asia mammals-described-in-1829 taxa-named-by-johann-baptist-fischer

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