Sunday, January 17, 2016

The Lion-tailed Macaque; An endangered primate found only in India

The Lion-tailed Macaque
Found in the western ghats in Southern India, the lion-tailed macaque is among one of the most threatened primates.

Found only in India, the most unique feature of these primates is the Greyish-white mane surrounding their face. The name Lion-tailed comes from a black tuft at the end of their tail which is very similar to that of Lions. They usually live till 20-30 years of age, and feed on insects, seeds, fruits, etc.

They are endangered because of their gradually diminishing habitat, mostly because of coffee and tea plantations, and because of human settlement. Since they tend to avoid humans and choose not to be near any human settlement, the areas where they can thrive have reduced considerably, and that has impacted their population.

However, the good news is, because of the efforts to protect these primates, their numbers have grown in the recent past and hopefully it will improve. These photos are courtesy Soma.

You may want to visit the The Lion-tailed Macaque page of Wikipedia to know more about these primates.

You may find this post on endangered apes in India interesting as well.

The Lion-tailed Macaque


The Lion-tailed Macaque, in its natural habitat


2 comments:

The Untourists said...

We were lucky to spot one in one. Of our drives through the western ghats of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. These fellow earth inhabitants are extremely beautiful. Hope we are able to carve out larger areas for their conservation.

Ranjana Jha said...

@ Untourists,

Yes you were!
I hope so too...it is needed but I don't think there is enough awareness yet:(


Thanks,
Ranjana