The Langurs Project (Updated)

Those of us living in Penang have grown up with the fact that there are and hopefully, always will be monkeys at the Botanic Gardens. But few of us give our monkeys much thought other than as adorable curiosities to be shown to tourists or friends from other places. After all they are practically ubiquitous to the extant of being nuisances occasionally. What we don't realise is that it will take hard work to keep our beloved monkeys.

Members from The Friends of Botanic Gardens Society attended a talk in support of the Langurs Project given by Ms Joleen Yap at the Spice Gardens. The aim of the talk was to educate the public on the langurs of Penang Island. A graduate student of the USM, Ms Yap and her team under the supervision of Dr. Nadine Ruppert are studying the langurs in the Teluk Bahang, Botanic Gardens and Cerok Tok Kun Forest Reserves.

So what are langurs? For starters, they are not macaques, the more commonly seen denizens of the Gardens' trees, lawns and practically everywhere else they can beg or steal free food. This is a macaque.

This is a langur. Langurs are also monkeys. Members of the genus Trachypithecus, Penang's langurs are also known as Dusky Leaf Monkeys and are different from the Gray or Hanuman Langurs of India. Our langurs are very shy, much darker and have very sweet faces like this one seen at the Gardens. 

They are also classified as Near Threatened (IUCN 3.1) on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species* (see below) though our Penang langurs, cute as they might be, have not been properly studied before Ms Yap's academic research study.

The purpose of Ms Yap's study is to identify our local langurs' Diet, Activity Pattern and Habitat Use. Ms Yap's study is a primary base-line study and very important in determining conservation efforts. 

Ms Yap currently has a study grant from the Rufford Foundation but more local sponsorship and participation would certainly help to achieve the noble aim of her work. 

The Friends of the Botanic Gardens Society is supporting Ms Yap's efforts and we hope to hold a similar talk for our members and the public if there is sufficient interest.

Please indicate your interest by emailing your response to our email address at Botanika with the title: Langurs talk: OK. 

*The IUCN Red List or IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (sometimes just Red Data List) is the interntaional community's most comprehensive inventory of the conservation status of biological species world-wide. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is the world's main authority in such matters and Regional Red Lists assess the risk of extinction of various species within each of those regions.