Name: Yu Bin
Date: 4/5th/2013
Science 6HN-English B06 Ms. Richey
Grey Shanked DoucLangur
Pygathrix Cinerea
6HN Yu Bin
Pygathrix Cinerea, called as grey shanked douc langur, is one kind of langurs that are folivorous (Eat lives). Both male and female have their backs covered in grey as much as their legs and arms with white forearms, contrasting with their chest and face color which are brownish red and orange. They have white and furry beard on their jaw, and they have shining almond shaped eyes. An average body mass for an adult male douc is around 10.9kg, and for the female it is around 8.2 kg. An adult looks about 80~90cm tall.This specie is now critically endangered of intensive logging and hunting.
Grey shanked douc langurs are diurnal (Active during the day) primates that occur in evergreen highland forests in central Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Like other doucs, they are largely arboreal (Live in trees) and folivorous, but also eat fruits, plant buds, flowers and seeds.Movement of the group is led by adult male with females and infants in the center. Mostly, they stay together, and some of them are very playful that they tend to play more than adults. When I saw them in captivation at Endangered Primate Rescue Center (EPRC), they were staying in a high level like they would in forest. In grey shanked douc langurs’ habitat, they would have more trees and spaces to move around and hide. But in the cage, there is nothing except for bamboo sticks that the langurs would hang on.In captivity, they usually sit on high leveled sticks and just stare, or grab and run to each other to play.Grey Shanked Douc Langur is one of the world’s 25 most endangered species. Their total population is estimated about 550 to 700 individuals, and some areas with assumed occurrence not yet survived. This specie is in threatened-use because of the top predator us, humans. The evidences of grey shanked douc langurs being threatened are many. The main two reasons are habitat loss from logging thatpeople made to expend agriculture system and hunting for food, traditional medicine and pets. The Vietnamese central highland forests where those langurs occur lose about 1000ha, and some people are hunting those langurs for illegal. Even though they keep the langurs as a pet instead of eating or killing them, the langurs can die fromIndigestion. In addition, there are also lots of monkeys that got hurt or died from dangerous traps around their territory or got caught and used for humans’ target practice. In the other hand, humans are helping the grey shanked douc langur by rescuing and keeping them somewhere safe like EPRC and CPCP. Also by making a poster or video, or even opening a campaign about protecting the specie helps to save the doucs too. In my opinion, it will be a nice help to all the endangered primates if people make a campaign with a fun event like game or quiz about the primates to persuade audience to donate for them. But it would take expensive cost, because that campaign would need many supplies for events even if there are donations going on.
It is important to protect our primates from being captured, because when they get extinct, food pyramid will get unbalanced which will make other species get extinct too including us, humans. That means extinction of species will give critical damage and resource loss to us, what will make us not able to live. That is why humans have to protect these species and respect them.
Citations:
Abbott, K.M, N.C Harvey, N.M Czekala, A. Fetter, and L. McGeehan. "Douc Langur (RhinopithecusNemaeus)." Douc Langur (RhinopithecusNemaeus). N.p., 22 June 2007. Web. 04 Apr. 2013.
Conroy, G.C, R.D Estes, J.G Fleagle, C. Groves, N. Rowe, and E.O Wilson."Primate Definitions."Primate Definitions.N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2013.
Ngoc Thanh, V., L. Lippold, T. Nadler, and R.J Timmins. "Pygathrix Cinerea." The ICUN Red List of Threatened Species. © International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources., 2008. Web. 04 Apr. 2013.
Russel A, Mittermeier, SchwitzerChristoph, Rylands Anthony B, Taylor Lucy A, Chiozza Federica, Williamson Elizabeth A, and Wallis Janette."Primates in Peril."Primates in Peril.©2012 Bristol Conservation and Science Foundation, n.d. Web. 4 Apr. 2013.