Meeting The Capped Langurs Of Bansbari

Bansbari Range, Manas National Park

I’d been in Manas National Park a day and seen none of the characters that I was there to see, namely the Capped Langur and the Assam Macaque. I’d seen both the zones in this area and Bhuyanpara was closed on Thursday. So, it was two back to back safaris in Bansbari for me and I knew that this was the day that I’d have to be on my A game. Bhuyanpara is mostly grassland and would be good for birds. The guys I was after, had to be here in Bansbari. Now, everyone I spoke to including the drivers and forest guards completely counted out sightings of the Assam Macaque. Where I was at that morning, I’d be happy to take what I got.

Well, my luck turned at 7 am that morning as we drove through the range. The light wasn’t the best and probably wouldn’t be the best ever in these parts cause of the vegetation but the Langurs were out. See, Id been late on the first day and they probably went back into the bush as it got hot. My second safari on the first day was in Bhuyanpara and I was probably chasing some birds there at the time that they came out again.

It became apparent pretty soon that each troop of these guys had their own territories. So, between the birds and these guys things were as I’d thought during my recce of both ranges the day before. Everything was in the trees and everything was tough to frame around. Branches, leaves, back light, obstacles and fast moving targets all made it pretty exciting to say the least. Good thing was that I had the day before to suss out my strategy and had already prepped the driver for it like I said in “To The Kingdom Of The Homrai”. Directing the safari vehicle in the vernacular was a pretty awesome new experience for me and I think we all had a handle on things within the first couple of hours. It always takes some time to get to know the crew and I absolutely dread having someone inexperienced behind the wheel. I got lucky with Pinku and Manjit on this trip. I hadn’t planned it like that. Thankfully, Manjit tagged along cause they kinda sensed that I’d need the help given that I was coming solo on a photography trip. Having a spotter who’s a local was a huge help especially in these conditions.

Langurs are leaf eating monkeys and these guys get their names cause of the dark patch of hair on their heads. So they are perpetually on the move all the time to get to their leaves and they have to eat a lot of it. The thing that I had to get used to was fast partial framing. As it is, there’s no way to get these monkeys’ tails and bodies in one picture. The tail’s just too long. With the vegetation thrown in, you have to choose one subject who’s sort of in the clear and then frame keeping in mind the foliage around that individual. So my strategy was, to have a general idea of where all the players were but keep my focus and zoom locked on the subject at hand even if I was briefly checking out what the others were doing. When I wanted to change subjects, I’d move the car to get the next guy from a clear vantage and start the whole process again, all the while compensating for the messy light and bursts of movement. When the subject moves in these conditions, it pays to shift targets altogether till that one settles again. There was no point tracking through the lens in this thick vegetation. I learnt soon that this whole game was a combination of how I photograph birds and land mammals, all of it at a different, mixed pace. There's the slow movements like with land mammals along with sudden bursts of frenzy like with little birds and all of it in the canopy. It pays to wait for their heads to turn to where you want it for your frame. It doesn’t to follow them around while they’re scampering in the branches. Primate photography is not for the novice and perhaps that’s why you don’t see many wildlife photography tour operators doing them at all.

Adult male Langurs are the darkest and the children, the lightest. I think I got pretty lucky with the youngling I found in one of the troops as you can see in Pics : 13 & 14 and even luckier cause he / she was curious and gave me many stares which was exactly what I was hoping for. Hands down, the star subject of the trip for me. Another awesome realization was the faces of exclamation that these guys make which can be borderline hilarious ( Pics 5, 6, 9 & 15 ). They had me wondering if they really are surprised at all like us when they make those faces.

I had come to Manas for a new experience and that’s exactly what I was getting. The Langurs I was meeting here were turning out to be exactly the new adventures in wildlife that I was after. Needless to say, I was learning new things about these fascinating subjects and about decoding how to capture what I saw the best that I could. Good thing I still had the rest of that day and the morning of my departure to learn and figure out more.