Lion-tailed macaque

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Lion-tailed macaque[1]
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Family: Cercopithecidae
Genus: Macaca
Species: M. silenus
Binomial name
Macaca silenus
(Linnaeus, 1758)[3]
Lion-tailed macaque range
Synonyms
  • vetulus (Erxleben, 1777)
  • albibarbatus (Kerr, 1792)
  • ferox (Shaw, 1792)
  • veter (Audebert, 1798)
  • silanus (F. Cuvier, 1822)

The lion-tailed macaque (Macaca silenus), or the wanderoo, is an Old World monkey endemic to the Western Ghats of South India.

Physical characteristics

A male showing its canines

The hair of the lion-tailed macaque is black. Its outstanding characteristic is the silver-white mane which surrounds the head from the cheeks down to its chin, which gives this monkey its German name Bartaffe - "beard ape". The hairless face is black in colour. With a head-body length of 42 to 61 cm and a weight of 2 to 10 kg, it ranks among the smaller macaques. The tail is medium in length, about 25 cm, and has a black tuft at the end, similar to a lion's tail. The male's tail-tuft is more developed than that of the female.

Gestation is approximately six months. The young are nursed for one year. Sexual maturity is reached at four years for females, and six years for males. The life expectancy in the wild is approximately 20 years, while in captivity is up to 30 years.[4]

Behaviour

The lion-tailed macaque is a diurnal rainforest dweller. It is a good climber and spends a majority of its life in the upper canopy of tropical moist evergreen forests. Unlike other macaques, it avoids humans. In group behavior, it is much like other macaques; it lives in hierarchical groups of usually 10 to 20 animals, which consist of few males and many females. It is a territorial animal, defending its area first with loud cries towards the invading troops. If this proves fruitless, it brawls aggressively.

Lion-tailed macaque behaviour is characterized by typical patterns such as arboreal living, selectively feeding on a large variety of fruit trees, large interindividual spaces while foraging, and time budgets with high proportion of time devoted to exploration and feeding.[5] It primarily eats indigenous fruits, leaves, buds, insects and small vertebrates in virgin forest, but can adapt to rapid environmental change in areas of massive selective logging through behavioural modifications and broadening of food choices to include fruits, seeds, shoots, pith, flowers, cones, mesocarp, and other parts of many nonindigenous and pioneer plants.[5]

Lion-tailed macaque in Anamalai hills

Population

A recent assessment for IUCN reports 3000-3500 of these animals live scattered over several areas in Kerala.[6] The lion-tailed macaque ranks among the rarest and most threatened primates. Their range has become increasingly isolated and fragmented by the spread of agriculture and tea, coffee, teak and cinchona, construction of water reservoirs for irrigation and power generation, and human settlements to support such activities. They do not live, feed or travel through plantations. Destruction of their habitat and their avoidance of human proximity have led to the drastic decrease of their population.

From 1977 to 1980, public concern about the endanged status of lion-tailed macaque became the focal point of Save Silent Valley, India's fiercest environmental debate of the decade. From 1993 to 1996, 14 troops were observed in Silent Valley National Park, Kerala, one of the most undisturbed viable habitats left for them.[7]

A self-sustainable single population of 32 groups of lion-tailed macaques occurred in Sirsi-Honnavara, Karnataka, the northernmost population of the species.[8] A local census concluded in 2007, conducted in the Theni District of Tamil Nadu, put their numbers at around 250, which was considered encouraging, because till then, no lion-tailed macaques had been reported in that specific area.[9] Many zoos take part in breeding programs which help to secure the survival of this species. About 338 of these macaques are reported to live in zoos.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Groves, C. P. (2005). Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M, eds. Mammal Species of the World (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 164. OCLC 62265494. ISBN 0-801-88221-4. 
  2. ↑ Kumar, A., Singh, M. & Molur, S. (2008). Macaca silenus. In: IUCN 2008. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Retrieved 4 January 2009.
  3. ↑ Linne´, Carl von (1758). Systema naturæ. Regnum animale. (10 ed.). p. 26. Retrieved 19 November 2012. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lion-tailed Macaque "Article - World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA), Virtual Zoo". 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Singh Mewa and Kaumanns Werner (2005-10-10). "Behavioural studies: A necessity for wildlife management". Current Science 89 (7): 1233. 
  6. ↑ Molur S, D Brandon-Jones, W Dittus, A. Eudey, A. Kumar, M. Singh, M.M. Feeroz, M. Chalise, P. Priya & S. Walker (2003). Status of South Asian Primates: Conservation Assessment and Management Plan (C.A.M.P.) Workshop Report, 2003. Zoo Outreach Organization/CBSG-South Asia, Coimbatore
  7. ↑ Ramachandran, K. K.; Joseph, Gigi, K. (2001). "Distribution and demography of diurnal primates in Silent Valley National Park and adjacent areas, Kerala, India". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 98 (2): 191–196. 
  8. ↑ Singh Mewa and Kaumanns Werner (October 2004). "Distribution and Abundance of Primates in Rain Forests of the Western Ghats, Karnataka, India and the Conservation of Macaca silenus". International Journal of Primatology 25 (5): abstract. doi:10.1023/B:IJOP.0000043348.06255.7f. 
  9. ↑ "Article-"Nilgiri Tahr, lion-tailed macaque sighted in Theni district"". The Hindu (Chennai, India). 9 May 2007. 

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