A macaque's memoir

Koo.. Koo.. Excitedly I shouted for my best friend who was hanging upside down on a branch trying to grab a bunch of leaves. No response from him though. Scratched my legs while sitting on the tree, I then moved a little towards the edge of the branch to pluck some of the brightest leaves and started to eat. They were good. Meanwhile I saw my pal walking in another direction on the ground, I then swiftly dropped whatever I was eating and ran towards him in a hurry, as if I may not see him again, and started to play with him. I pulled his legs first followed by his tail, then we both rolled on one another on the ground then jumping on each other occasionally followed by biting gently on each other’s legs and then suddenly we stopped. All these incredibly mischievousness events happened very quickly. This is my way of showing affection towards him. We both then went in different directions while I was back at plucking the brightest leaves.

This is what I do most of my time in the day, moving from tree to tree, jumping from branch to branch in search of delicious fruits along with my friends and family.

The names given to this monkey is really strange. Lion-tailed macaque, a name signifying its tail when the striking feature of this monkey is actually its mane. Its other name is Bartaffe, a German word which means bearded ape. The word ape signifies a primate with no tail. The other word is Wanderoo which is relatively apt derived from Sinhalese, Wandura meaning monkey.

I like to spend most of my time playing and talking with my pals on those branches and sleeping on them. I also like to devote most of the time with my mother especially during those grooming sessions and I feel extremely emotional when she often proudly talks about events - which were told by her mother who in turn was told by her elders and so on - with me and my cousins about our tribe such as how we got here and how our ancestors once roamed and played freely in the dense forests, eating one of the nicest fruits available to them.

And then my joy immediately settles down when I hear her telling that these pristine forests and the trees that we shiny black furred primates prefer to spend time on were once covered large area and perhaps we were also quite good in number as well. We are old world monkeys living in these beautiful forests which unfortunately are not continuous anymore. These evergreen trees as my aunts claim, could be many generations old.

The view of tea plantations amidst patches of forest where Lion-tailed macaques reside. Some of the trees. In these forests belong to the Pleistocene era (2.8 million years to 11,800 years ago).

I can only imagine that our ancestors ate the most delicious fruits that I may not get to eat them now, yet I am very much fond of whatever is still available to me and I relish on them a lot. Strolling with my troop is so much fun. We move continuously as if we are on a mission to finish all fruits in the forest. I have a deep fondness towards fleshy fruits though. The moment I see them on trees, I could not resist myself and immediately navigate towards the branch where the density of fruits are more. I pick up the ripe ones among those, of course ! And once I finish them, I move on to the next branch for another set of good ones and then to another tree and so on…

The frugivorous features of ours I guess are displayed very plainly, especially on everyone’s favourite - the big fruit with whom our relationship is a bit different though. I love my privacy. So I like to carry the fruit as a whole, which could be almost equal to my body weight or perhaps even more, carefully to a secluded location and start tearing aggressively starting from the top. One can see an unconditional love and an absence of mercy at the same time.

This monkey had taken the jackfruit to an isolated location and started eating. I have not seen Lion-tailed macaques finish eating the entire fruit yet. They are either get disturbed by other monkeys or they disturb others or the fruit slips from their hands and falls down.

While there is an intense focus on the fruit, at the same time I am always cautious by looking around while eating that someone might steal my valuable prize. No matter how careful I am, my luck never really supports me to finish the entire fruit. Being over-cautious sometimes has a cost to pay I suppose. Occasionally the fruit slips from my possession and falls on the ground. And sometimes my trophy is stolen by another mischievous one like me. Or may be it’s time to follow the troop to forage elsewhere so I had to drop and follow them. Whatever could be the reason I find another fruit which fascinates me in the new location and start to tear it again.

One of the unfinished Jackfruit from the Lion-tailed macaque. The fruit forgotten by one species might be useful to another such as invertebrates. Or may be one of the lucky seed could give birth to another tree.

When the big ones are not available, our eyes gets fixed to other kind of fruits - again fleshy ones of course. Or my eyes gets attracted on those luscious leaves. I also like to collect ants and other insects too while descending from trees or strolling on the ground. They are very fast and clever so either I pick them up via hand or suck them directly from mouth. My mother and my aunt prefer reptiles as well which are too big for me to eat. When the big fleshy fruits are back especially when it rains continuously, I hop on them again excitedly to relish their sweetness. And the cycle repeats.

In the absence of the native fruits, Lion-tailed macaques prefer to eat non-native ones like fruits of coffee. The monkey over here is carefully selecting and feeding on the ripe coffee fruits.

And we have to repeat the cycle not just for ourselves but for the survival of my new born cousins too. These infants are the most cute and curious ones of all. I am sure I was like one of them burying my face inside the fur of my mother’s belly and stay absolute still, eyes wide open as if that’s the only job in my life. I still remember those moments when I used to wake up occasionally and glance at the outside world just to see what my cousins are up to and when I get bored, I go back to my safe haven.

On occasions when my mother was feeding on the grass, I used to hang on to her belly and through her waving soft fur often peep at the world which looked upside down or in a different direction. I was more curious as I always used keep my eyes fixed on what I was seeing.

I however used to dare to come out of my mother’s arms on a few occasions. Especially, when I feel like to feed myself to pluck leaves or grab some small fruits from a near by branch or found something interesting on the ground. She always makes sure that I am at a handful of distance from her every time. And just when my mother senses some danger she immediately pulls me and put me on her belly again. I was happy to bury my face in the soft fur.

Lion-tailed macaques nurses and carry their infants under their belly until one year. Once they are matured, they are on their own. The age of females for the first birth is 6 years and the inter-birth interval is 30-36 months. The delayed sexual maturity and long inter-birth intervals is one of the factors for their low population turnover.

A fur to shine and to be that soft, it always need to be kept clean. All. The. Time. I still remember vividly when one day our troop was marching towards our common goal then I observed an elderly female sauntering in her own pace decided to stop near a stone, lifted to see if there are any insects. There aren’t any. She then lifted her left leg to clean. After some careful rubbing she then scratched her head on the left with the same leg.

Meanwhile one of my friend, out of nowhere came near this female and the actions that happened between them from here on were looked as if everything was predetermined. The elder female first lifted her head when my friend came closer to her who then immediately started to clean her ear. Then she slowly moved south of her ear clearing the dirt and putting insects into her mouth. The inspection has to be insanely thorough. Not a single particle of dust or any insect should reside on the skin.

The female then lifts her left hand to get it cleaned, which my friend does it diligently. Finally when the tail is taken care off, the other side of the body get its turn. The elderly female continued to delve the surface for a while for insects again and moved on from there to sit on the tree. Meanwhile one solitary sole strolled near this female and the act of persuasion proceeds. This time the young one started from the legs and the whole body cleaning continuous.

Grooming is a great opportunity for us to interact and know each other especially for those who want to become a queen like me. This is one of those sessions which I enjoy more since I mother tells those amazing stories about us while I clean the insects from her soft fur.

Allogrooming is an event where animals groom and get groomed which not only helps in maintaining their fur clean but also strengthens bonding between species. Typically the grooming of females in upwards direction. Meaning, the one with relatively more authority will get groomed by the sub-ordinate(s).

While the grooming session continues on one end, most of the sub-adults like me on the other end are in our own world, minding our own business no natter what. A busy body like ours always enjoy teasing our friends and cousins without any break.

There was one time when I was sitting idle on the branch, plucking leaves, inspecting each one of them before taking them inside. Few monkeys from our troop were marching from the opposite end and the moment I saw my pal who stopped by to eat insects on the ground, I dropped those leaves and in just couple of bounces I reached down to grab whatever my hand could get. It was his tail that I was holding which I pulled towards me. While he tried his best to release himself from me and move ahead but my mischievous mind made me to pull his tail again, then I grabbed one of his legs before jumping onto him to byte his ears.

My poor friend tried his best to get released himself and occasionally making an attempt to bite back however his defending skills are weak. I continued to bite him and while this play-bite was going on, we rolled over each other on the slope causing him to slide away from me a bit. Then all of a sudden we have relaxed and parted our ways. I climbed another tree near by and started to eat those lovely leaves as if nothing had happened. The whole fun had lasted just few moments I suppose. After a while the troop started to move into the forest and we eventually had to follow them at our own pace.

Two sub-adult macaques playing with each other where they gently pulling each other’s tail, legs and occasionally biting.

While we often move together from place to place for food, someone must lead and show us the resources for survival. Alpha male, the most powerful bloke in the group does this job for us.

It is a rather easy for me to distinguish this guy from other individuals. His body usually is relatively bigger in size than others, so as his mane which is much larger or much dispersed I would say. Although not necessarily every alpha is built that way. I have seen him mostly from a distance in the muster of macaques. He is the first ones to find the availability of food. As a result perhaps he often gets access to considerable amount of food and mate.

And being an alpha always comes at a cost as other macaques endeavour to be in his place. I have seen some of them have scars in some parts of their body. And in one case, the left eye was not there. It could be perhaps due to an aggressive fight either to become an alpha or while defending his position. He sometimes shows a bit of aggression towards other monkeys especially when the food is around. My pals in the troop drop what they eat and move away a bit or be cautious when he is around. In a larger troop like ours, there are more than one alpha so we have to be more careful.

Some of them move solitary and when they sense an opportunity they join the group and stay for a while before moving on to another. But there is no easy entry though. He has to show his capabilities to lead, in other words he would fight with the existing alpha of the new group and only if he wins, he is part of that group. And I guess for this very reason I have seen the alpha in my troop changing from time to time.

When a new alpha joins in many females will be excessively enthusiastic over him. Perhaps this is one of the reasons one of my cousins when I asked him if he wants to become an alpha while eating leaves on different branches, he replied “Of course, why not?”.

The superior male enjoys his time in the troop until he goes away by himself or someone more powerful one defeats him. In any case their main responsibilities do not change which is to move ahead of the team for food and mate. And the rest of the troop follow him wherever he goes.

An alpha male who lost his eye perhaps either while defending its territory or trying to grab one. They mostly move alone and join the troop primarily for a mate. Lead the troop for a while and disperse to another until someone more capable comes in.

And while we stroll sometimes its challenging to goto from one side to the other because there are things that go at super speed and few with a very loud noise. I feel terrified and wait for my friends to join or follow someone elder one in the troop to cross. We climb the tree and take the help of this bridge and jump on to the other side. Its much convenient this way. It was very scary when I was an infant. My mother used to tell that few of her friends have died when they got beneath these fast moving objects. And now we can go a bit safely without thinking much.

One of the monkeys from the troop who could successfully cross the bridge to go to the other end for foraging on fruits. Thanks to Nature conservation foundation, for putting this bridge so that these monkeys can go to the other end without getting bothered about the traffic.

In my story so far there are elements which are absolutely incredible such as these enchanting forests surrounding me right now, the delicious fruits I eat, cute infants I get to see daily and of course my glorious troop. While I am fabulously fortunate to be in the midst of these wonderful experiences, but then there is another world out there dominated by other species - the people. My mother says that her grandmother and earlier generations saw less humans than today. Most of the time in the day they used to spend on top of trees eating those juicy fruits. I am sure they could be more delicious at that time. But now, she says we see less trees around us. As a result, we walk on the ground more now than earlier.

It was one of those regular walks where my friend and I had delayed our journey was we were playing frequently with each other and he stayed near the edge of a house for a moment and started to groom himself while I was on the ground searching for insects.

A women from the house near by came out with the food prepared by them and poured on the floor. My friend immediately locked his eyes on the food, stopped grooming himself and slowly strolled towards the food and started to eat it in a hurry, while occasionally looking at me. His innocent eyes were scared, cautious and curious, all at the same time. Then after a little while we noticed rest of the gang had moved a significant distance from us and hence we had to follow them. He almost finished everything by that time. Later while walking I thought “Hey! this is not something what we eat regularly. Our first preference is always those fleshy sweet fruits then it is those luscious leaves, insects on the bark of the tree or on the ground.”

We got used to this food as I was told. Mama says to eat a lot so we eat whatever we find on the floor including the ones prepared or left over by humans. Sometimes we go inside their houses as well to see if they have something interesting.

A young LTM eating curd rice placed by a person from the near by home.

The stories that I hear from my mother and the narrative that has been passed through generations, it appears that we certainly used to spend a lot of time in the forests, above trees which many have already disappeared. We now have nowhere to go. The size of our home had shrank a lot. The fruits and leaves of many trees are not there anymore.

And perhaps I think this could be the reason why we eat this food which humans sometimes generously give away perhaps thinking that we are a bunch of cute little monkeys who are in hunger most of the times. Thinking now about all these events, I feel perhaps this is the reason why my mother, aunt and other elder ones in the family tend to get angry sometimes with each other. This is not who we are and I am afraid who we are turning into! I also feel sometimes that these foods that we eat given by humans are perhaps the reason why we are spending less time on trees. And most likely for sure we have converted from a funny and mischievous monkeys to pugnacious primates.

One of many monkeys feeding on the garbage. Research shows that because these monkeys feed on garbage and various water streams, these monkeys contain parasites such as Strongyloides and Balantidium which can cause diarrhoea, abdominal pain, skin rashes etc.

There were times when I do not find any human made food on our way then during those days I continue to play more with my friends and eat what ever fruit or leaf is in my way. I feel joyous during those days. Likewise, I wonder “what if” the lady did not pour the rice, my friend and I would have continued to play with each other and went along with our troop a bit early. What if these humans did not put whatever they want in our path, who knows we would have spending more time on top of trees in the forest avoid contact with humans altogether just like the olden days. Because climbing trees is more fun than buildings.

The stories my told by my mother and aunts about the habitat our forefathers lived is fascinating. Just like them, when I grow up I certainly would like to spend more time on trees eating various fruits, getting groomed and playing with my friends. Meanwhile, here he comes again “Koo Koo..”

Lion-tailed macaques faced couple of episodes of huge habitat loss. May their population increase slowly and sustain for longer period of time. Right now the conservation status of theirs is Endangered.

• I am immensely thankful to Dr. Honnavalli N. Kumara, Principal Scientist, SACON and Dr. Ashni Dhawale, National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS, IISc Campus, Bengaluru) for their time in reviewing the draft.