Nilgiri Langur

• Common Names: Hooded leaf monkey, Black-leaf monkey, John’s langur, and Indian hooded leaf monkey
• Taxonomy Classification Year: 1829
• Monkey Size: 58 to 80 cm (22.83 to 31.50 in)
• Skin Color(s): Black
• Habitat: Forest, mountains
• Diet: Omnivorous
• Native Countries: India

The Nilgiri langur^[1] (Semnopithecus johnii), also called the black-leaf monkey, John’s langur, and Indian hooded leaf monkey is a langur (a species of Old-World monkey) found in the Nilgiri foothills of the Western Ghats in southern India.

• These langurs’ range also includes Kodagu in Karnataka, Kodayar Hills in Tamil Nadu, and many other mountainous regions of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
• Nilgiri langurs have a glossy black coat with a reddish brown to golden head. Newborns are reddish-brown until ten weeks of age when they take on the color of adults.
• Like purple-faced langurs, Nilgiri langurs have dark faces and white whiskers. In addition, female species have white patches on their thighs that distinguish them from male species.
• Nilgiri langurs are sexually dimorphic, with males being slightly larger than females.

• Generally, Nilgiri langurs live in small groups centered around females. These groups can consist of one male and several females, several males and several females, or one or more solitary males.
• At the peak of its activity, it alternates between the feeding and resting phases.
• They exhibit subtle dominance hierarchies. Within each group, there are two dominance structures, one for males and one for females.
• Nilgiri langurs show territorial behavior when confronted with other species groups. This territorial defense directly involves a single adult male from each group.
• Nilgiri langurs communicate primarily through vocalization. Vocal communication is observed during the maintenance of social hierarchy, in territorial conflicts, in the context of female-female conflicts within the group, and finally, during male interventions in these conflicts.