The Capped Langurs Of Bansbari

Bansbari Range, Manas National Park

You know, I feel like an idiot when I realize things that I should have known after ages of seeing but not really seeing them. I was halfway through my experience with my latest subjects like I wrote in my post about “Meeting The Capped Langurs Of Bansbari” when some things about them started becoming blatant. The obvious that I’d ignored and it made me feel like a fool, really.

Langurs have the most expressive eyes. Just look at em, any of em. Now, I’d been seeing mostly grey Langurs all around the country and I never stopped to note that their eyes are so expressive and beautiful. Guess it takes a little bit of attention through the big lens to zero in on stuff even now. Their feet; those things are HUGE man and they’re shaped like our hands. Well, they’re more like a combination of our hands and feet given the long fingers. Having feet like that would be like having the top half of a hand attached. I guess they have to be cause they’re swinging using all their limbs but I honestly never stopped to question how. Just check out my guys in Pics : 3 - 6.

There were a few occasions in the numerous sightings of these guys that I have to tell you about. Firstly, the sleepwalker. This guy ( Pics : 13 – 18 ) was happily asleep on the branch and I don’t know if he woke up and kept his eyes closed or was sleepwalking, but my guy literally crawled about the branch in both directions, back and forth, doing these slow movements like he was doing tai chi or a ritual or something. He actually stopped for a few minutes and it looked like he’d gone to sleep again ( Pic : 17 ) and then got up to get at it again. Was it a sleep walk, exercise, dream or what? To me, it showed his comfort in maneuvering throughout the length of the branch and back with his eyes closed and he was at it for a while too letting me take my pick of shots. Nothing hurried like normal Langur movements there. Guess I’ll know what this was if I keep seeing Langurs and see this kind of behavior again.

I witnessed a quarrel when one of these guys climbed upto another and started yelling his head off at the bigger fella ( Pics : 19 – 22 ). There was yelling and fist shaking but no violence. The little guy was obviously pissed at something and they were both raising Cane trying to prove their points. How, I don’t understand when they don’t have language. What made it interesting to me was that the bigger guy kept caressing the smaller one time and again to try and subdue him and his facial expressions along with defensive stance made it clear to me that they both knew what it was about which I’m pretty sure I’ll never figure out but it was obviously a family affair. Another interaction that I got a front row seat to was the siblings at play. One obviously older than the other ( Pics : 8 – 11). These two were just having fun up in the tree and for me; the whole interaction was an awesome catch. Finally, the farewell. My last sighting of these guys on this trip was of this mother and child ( Pics : 12, 23 & 24 ). I was focused on them mainly cause I was taking my chances with the backlight, hoping to get some light play. It was evident that she was staring right at me and that too for a while. She finally did a wave like gesture ( Pic : 24 ) and dashed off right after with a clean jump to the next tree, baby clamped on to her tummy. Incidentally, this happened at the end of The Capped Langur territory in Bansbari and hers was the last sighting of them on my trip. A fitting farewell for me I guess that I’ll always remember.

I knew my Capped Langur adventure was clearly over after that. We’d never seen any past that point and I asked the boys to hurry along cause I was in a hurry to head home after seeing the Langurs. It was a long drive, I was alone and there was chance of rain. These two ranges were done for the year for me. I’d done what I could to catch the yellow, orange, grey, brown and black Langurs who were unique just for that colour mix on them. I had had no luck with The Assam Macaque. Not a single one in sight and not a single local who reported the possibility of a sighting. As we were heading back, I remembered the road out being straight but Pinku suddenly slowed and took a right turn and Manjit exclaimed, “Weren’t we going straight?”, in Asamese. Pinku, replied, “It’s just five minutes, we still have so much time left”. I didn’t question them. I was good for 5 more minutes in a new area. It would be my last time in the forest for a while so why not?

Little did I know then that this short detour would be the reason for a whole new adventure and we’d be on it for a lot longer than just five minutes.