---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COUNTRY NOTEBOOK : M.Krishnan: Lone traveller among the Bandar-log :The Sunday Statesman :29 October 2017
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A LONE MALE LANGUR

" There was a party of Langur near the forest rest-house where I stayed last April, and for three weeks I watched the monkeys off and on, mostly late in the afternoons. They were in the trees than (in the mornings they were usually on ground, near the road), busily feeding on the new leaves, and flower buds of bauhinias flanking the road, and almost the first thing I noticed was that there was a lone male, not in the party but always at a distance, following it. This was a full-grown animal, tall and strongly made, and furnished with the most luxuriant whiskers I have seen on a Langur, but less heavy,and younger, than the big male of the party.

Evidently a banished prospective rival. He was never so far from the party that he could not keep track of its movements, and often he was only a few trees away, but took good care to stay well clear of the older, dominant leader. Perhaps there had been a fight that led to his exile, for there were two wounds, very much like tooth marks, on his left shoulder, partly hidden by his thick coat.

The old male of the party did not seem to bother at all about the proximity of his rival, and went about his feeding and rest with leisurely assurance, but no doubt he was keeping a sharp watch. The lone male on the other hand, was patently nervous, fidgety and unhappy. He was aggressive, leaping from tree to tree with a display of speed and muscle, and demonstrating angrily at any of the females of the party that happened to pass beneath his tree and even at me, opening his mouth to exhibit his formidable canines, and raising and lowering his brow in a quick, intimidatory gesture, usually to the accompaniment of a rasping guttural snarl.

A Kuruba whom I met suggested that this Langur was probably mad. Madness, he explained, was by no means peculiar to men; elephants sometimes went berserk,and this Langur had undoubtedly lost his reason, otherwise why leap about in this frantic manner the heat was so enervating, and why indulge in these angry grimaces? But I knew what madness swayed that monkey.

I have often thought, and said, that to try to understand animals, especially mammals, entirely at the level of their intelligence as we are able to assess it (often not taking sufficient notice of their very different perceptions) dose not show much comprehension on our part. Emotionally we have so much in common with them, and while it is true that an application of purely anthropomorphic values to animal behaviour does mislead one. It still helps to realise that animals, too, are subject to passing (or even lasting) moods and emotions, fear, anger, gladness, hate, love, and even silliness.

There were six adult female monkeys in the party and only two with young -- and these young were no longer infants, but able to fend for themselves, and covered with whitish grey hair. Beyond the road, at the timber yard, there was another party of Langur in which there were several mothers with infants in arms, much younger, black coated infants. What demented this solitary Langur was probably that he had reached the full vigour of his maleness, and was denied the companionship of a female and it could well be that party leadership was also in issue.

Would he eventually oust the older male as leader? Perhaps, but just now the she-monkeys were loyal to their leader, and hostile to him. Once, when the leader had gone to the river along with the two females with youngsters, and the rest were feeding in the bauhinia trees, he went up aggressively to the trees, and the she-monkeys came down in a body to bare their teeth and snarl at him, and he went away at an energetic gallop. Knowledgeable observers have reported that among monkeys (even among Langurs), sexual love is marked by dominant assertion and brute force. At times may be; but I have often watched Langur in love, and certainly their courtship was tender, with a sentimental tenderness that never failed to amuse me."

- M. Krishnan

This was published on 1 August 1966

# The photograph of the Langur with long tail has not been reproduced here.