Valparai Surprise I - Nilgiri Langur Behaviour

Valparai, Tamil Nadu

I've been reading that the 100th Blog Post is supposed to be a special one. Well, what better way to bring out the ocassion than on Diwali? It's been almost 15 months since I started this and I'm so happy that I did. It's just the vent that I needed. Yes. it's a bit antisocial by today's standards, but that's by choice. To the ones who do drop in, I'd like to thank you very much. I don't know who you are but please rest assured that I do appreciate you more than I would have if you had a username and we were on some other platform. We're kindered spirits. 100th is also an awesome ocassion to share things that I discovered unaided and by myself about a new species that I ran into in Valparai a few months ago. That's the real fun and motivation for the whole thing for me. The real maza in the excitement. So here's my take on the most underrated Primate species in the country. Happy Diwali Everyone !

It’s one of the stars of the Monkeyverse; the Lion Tailed Macaques that drew me to Valparai. They’re the stars cause of their uniqueness and that’s how they behave as well. Unabashed in their attitude, LTMs dominate when the troop is on the move. But the region is also home to another Primate species who I found to be totally the opposite in their behavior towards Humans. The Nilgiri Langurs also share the same forest canopy with the Macaques. In fact, I even caught the two species sharing the same branch on a tree on my second morning there, right before our lunch break and subsequent rain. While they were pretty chilled out by themselves, my approach made the Langur scamper off, while the LTM stayed and decided to just ignore me like I didn’t exist. That experience made me wonder about why these Monkeys were being so shy? I mean the Capped Langurs of Assam hadn’t been shy. The Grey Langurs that we see all around the country are never shy so what was up with these guys? Well, a little digging during that day and a half when I was stuck during the rain in Valparai ( Ref : Public Enemy No.1 ) kinda provided me with the answer I think. It’s a three letter recipe called “Black Monkey Soup” and that recipe is supposedly not available on any menu anymore.

These guys had been poached to near extinction by quacks who have sold their meat as cure for innumerable diseases for a very long time. Like most quack medicine, the exotic provides the most magic for the supposed best results and obviously at the highest price. It’s a repetitive practice that Humans have engaged in historically by building false lore around certain “different” animals. It has been done around the world and across all cultures. Our horrible history of profiteering from wildlife genocide while fooling other people has genetically altered this species and made them wary and nervous around us. We have to note that being Langurs, they are leaf eating Monkeys and prefer to stay in dense forests. Macaques, on the other hand are omnivorous and with time have evolved to skirt around Humans without avoiding us totally out of necessity. Macaques have also changed with changing Human behaviors like giving up eating black monkey soup. Well, that’s my take on my first Valparai Surprise which was the Nilgiri Langurs. By the end of my trip, I found these guys in actuality to be just as unique if not more in comparison to the LTMs because of the uncomfortable feeling that they gave me when I first saw them, ( Ref : All Bets On Kurangumudi ) which in time changed to amazement ( I'll come to how in a bit ) and their unique shy behavior which is probably due to generations of poaching by quacks but none the less, makes them stand out among all the other kinds of Langurs that I have seen so far.

Kurangamudi was a fantastic find for a location to observe these guys because the hilly terrain put me at eye level with my subjects who were high up on trees that they climbed at a lower altitude. It taught me that hills are just as good for Primate Photography as they are for birds and for the same reason. There’s no way we’d have as much success with these guys had we been in the plains cause they are just too shy. It’s their shyness and preference for staying in the treetops that makes getting pictures more of a challenge cause in a tree also means around a lot of foliage. Beyond little birds, I think they are the only species that have made me wish that I had an 800 mm so far.

Nilgiri Langurs are classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN redlist and we estimate that there could be anywhere between 5000 to 15000 of these guys around in the wild. Well, I guess it’s pretty apparent that we’ve got no idea here since those are the official stats and yet again it shows the impact that Human behavior can have on other species because these guys have gotten so good at dodging us that we can’t even count em properly despite all our resources. In fact my online searches on this species has provided the least amount of information that I have seen so far for any non bird species. All you get is that they’re black Langurs with light coloured heads and the rest is general Langur jargon.

Halfway through my second trip to the location I learnt that you have to give these guys some time and the bolder ones among them eventually resurface from the thickets if you do. I eased up on my pace when I realized that my hurried movements could be adding to their nervous nature and as a result, most of my photos were going to be headed straight to the bin for sure. Giving it all I had was good strategy, but I was not accommodating for the inherent nature of my subjects in my personal excitement. I also knew that we’d be going up and down that same stretch by then. I just had to do it all a little slower and steadier for these guys cause they'd circle back to where  they were at unlike tigers or most birds who never come back to the same spot soon after they leave. When I slowed my vehicle and my personal approaches, my subjects seemed to relax as well and showed more of themselves. It could also be that they had seen Anees and I numerous times by then and were easing up to the odd man with the long lens. Not very practical for them to be bolting off for me when I’d just be back again in a bit I guess. But whatever the reason behind it, I did find them a lot more accommodating to photography by the late afternoon by when we’d developed a slow crawling pace up and down that same road. I absolutely loved catching their expressions that you see here and learnt that of all the Primates that I’d seen so far, these guys were the easiest for me to distinguish between by face alone. It’s pretty interesting how what had made me uncomfortable about them just a few hours ago was becoming the most fascinating thing about this species. None of them look alike to me. In comparison, there’s no way for me to tell one Lion Tailed Macaque from another just by face alone.

All the pictures of Nilgiri Langurs that I have are from one side of the road. The right side as you’re going down towards Kurangumudi. There was no action on the left on my first two trips down that road and back. I didn’t question it then, but my last trip down that road would make me realize that the left, which leads to human settlements as well is where I’d find my next Valparai Surprise, which Il’ll tell you all about on my next post.