I don't think the highlight is bright enough to distract. Reducing it further will result in losing details. One has to be cautious in photographing animals with fur and birds with bright plumage as the chance of overexposing is always there.

I would have also loved just the face. These fellows seemed to know that people carry food items into Nelapattu. One of them was fearless and started snatching from Kalpesh. I had to shoo it away with my tripod. The interesting thing is I just pointed the tripod like a gun and they ran away. Similar reaction I had seen with langurs as well.