DID YOU KNOW?

HANUMAN LANGURS ARE BELIEVED TO BE THE DESCENDANTS OF A MONKEY GOD, AND ARE OFTEN FED BY PEOPLE IN JODHPUR.

An hour after sunrise this troop of about 100 Hanuman langurs Semnopithecus entellus run along a cliff edge outside the city of Jodhpur, in the Indian state of Rajasthan. The word ‘langur’ comes from the Sanskrit langulin which means ‘having a long tail’ – Hanuman langurs have longer tails than any other primate. Measuring up to 87cm, they have evolved to aid balance as the monkeys move through the forest canopy.

In Hindu myth the monkey god Hanuman is said to have rescued King Ram’s wife Seeta from the king of Lanka (modern-day Sri

Lanka), by setting the island alight with his tail. The langurs’ black faces have been linked to the charred monkey god.

HHanuman langurs (or grey langurs) thrive around the city of Jodhpur on the fringes of India’s Great Desert, thanks to the country’s spirituality and legends. “The Hindu belief in the sacredness of all life and the weaving of monkeys into ancient mythology have helped to create a climate of tolerance,” explains Gautam Sharma, a zoologist at Jodhpur University. The langurs are believed to be the descendants of the fire-wielding monkey god Hanuman, and are often treated as sacred beings.

So it’s no surprise that urban langur troops tend to be bolder than their rural cousins, and their behaviour can alter dramatically as they move from one part of their range to another. In forested areas they forage for their natural diets of leaves, flowers and insects, but in the city the same troop will scavenge for leftovers and accept the food that people give them.

“We see a marked increase in social tension in the study groups during periods of provisioning in the city, which usually manifests as enhanced aggression among the adult females of the troop,” explains Sharma. “Research into higher-provisioning troops found increased levels of aggression. Threats, chases and attacks were recorded up to six times more frequently during feeding periods.”

In the wild the monkeys’ sacculated (chambered) stomach allows them to break down a high-cellulose diet of leaves and unripe fruit, and troops living at over 4,000m in the Himalaya can survive on a nutritionally poor diet of bark and mature leaves. The very same morphology allows the langurs to survive the perhaps equally challenging diet they have in cities, though an unhealthy urban lifestyle does take a toll.

PHOTO STORY

FAR LEFT This female is being groomed by a subordinate female. It seems likely that a langur’s rank is inherited from its mother. However, though hierarchy is important, researchers have seen subordinate females display a surprising level of aggression...

LEFT This troop are sitting on a cliff overlooking the suburbs of Jodhpur. There are an estimated 2,400 langurs in and around the city, organised in approximately 40 groups with just one adult male (‘uni-male’) plus 20 all-male groups. Urban troops...