Lion-tailed Macaque – Habitat, Characteristics, Threats & Conservation Status

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Lion-tailed Macaque – Habitat, Characteristics, Threats & Conservation Status

Lion-tailed Macaque

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The lion-tailed macaque, is an endangered primate endemic to evergreen rainforests of the southern part in Western Ghats
It is also known as the “beard ape, ” due to its distinctive silver or gray mane that encircles its face.
Sometimes called bearded monkey, is an Old World monkey

Characteristics

Lion-tailed macaques are covered in black fur, and have a striking gray or silver mane that surrounds the face in both sexes.
They are named not for their mane, but for their tail, which is long, thin, and naked, with a lion-like, black tail tuft at the tip.
Lion-tailed macaques, like other macaques, have deep cheek pouches used for storing food, and are quadrupedal with opposable digits.
They are among the smaller sized macaques with males weighing on an average 8.9 kg and females weighing 6.1 kg.
Lion-tailed macaques are a territorial animal, defending their area first with loud cries and bared teeth towards the invading troops. If this proves to be fruitless, it brawls aggressively, which can result in severe injuries due to lacerations from their large canines.
It is diurnal, meaning it is active exclusively in daylight hours. When active, they will spend half the day foraging, and the other half will be spent resting or finding new areas to forage.

Quadrupedalism is a form of locomotion in which animals have four legs that are used to bear weight and move around.
Diurnality is a form of plant and animal behavior characterized by activity during daytime, with a period of sleeping or other inactivity at night.

Distribution

This species is endemic to the Western Ghats, roughly distributed from 8°25’N Kalakad Hills to 14°55‟N north of Anshi Ghat in south western India, with its range passing through the three states of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Although the species has a relatively wide range, its area of occupancy is small and severely fragmented.
Historically the species was distributed as a continuous population in the entire Western Ghats, but is now locally extinct in Maharashtra and Goa.
The lion tailed macaques are divided into to two sub populations by a gap of about 40 km in the mountains at Palghat in Kerala.

Silent Valley has the largest number of lion-tailed macaques in South India.

Habitat

The lion tailed macaque is a habitat specialist, restricted to the evergreen forests of the Western Ghats.They are found in mature mountainous forests, at altitudes between 610-1070m, with a large amount of canopy cover and protected from view.
Lion tailed macaques are considered the most arboreal among macaques spending 93% of their time in the middle and upper parts of the forest canopy, and less than 1% of their time on the ground
In the wet and higher altitude regions of the Western Ghats, lion-tailed macaques share the habitat with Nilgiri langurs .
- The two sympatric species exhibit dietary and vertical separation in the utilization of resources with the former being frugivorous/faunivorous and the latter primarily folivorous. Further, lion-tailed macaques move and feed in the upper canopy, while the Nilgiri langurs use the middle and lower canopies.

Sympatry
- In biology, two closely related species or populations are considered sympatric when they exist in the same geographic area and thus frequently encounter each other.
Sympatric speciation
- It is the evolution of a new species from a surviving ancestral species while both continue to inhabit the same geographic region.

Feeding Ecology

Primarily frugivorous, also feeds on nectar, resins, insects, frogs, lizards, small birds & eggs(So omnivorous in nature).

Social organization and behaviour

Lion-tailed macaques live in multi-male, multi-female groups containing adult males, females and offspring with group sizes ranging from six to 53 individuals.
Troops include females and usually one and occasionally two males.
The species shows female natal philopatry with males dispersing.

Philopatry is the tendency of an organism to stay in or habitually return to a particular area

Threats

Its population faces threats from habitat loss, fragmentation, and human encroachment.

Conservation Status

IUCN Red List: Endangered
CITES: Appendix I.
Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972: Schedule I.

UPSC PYQ(2023)

Consider the following fauna:

1. Lion-tailed Macaque

2. Malabar Civet

3. Sambar Deer

How many of the above are generally nocturnal or most active after sunset?

(a) Only one

(b) Only two

(d) None

UPSC PYQ(2013)

In which of the following States is lion-tailed macaque found in its natural habitat?

1. Tamil Nadu

2. Kerala

3. Karnataka

4. Andhra Pradesh

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:

(a) 1, 2 and 3 only

(b) 2 only

(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

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