Wild About Wild Life

Here is a neat wildlife bit that was in the news recently. A new born leaft monkey by the name of Tantan, born on or around November 20th, 2009, was relaxing with his parents at the zoological gardens Zoorasia in Yokohama, near Tokyo Japan. What a neat little creature and very colorful breed to behold. Wild life comes in many different sizes, shapes and colors which is what makes it one of the greatest creations on earth.

MONKEY CHARACTERISTICS

These little monkey’s, The  Francois (pronounced frawn-SWAH) monkey, Presbytis francoisi, is one of several species sometimes called leaf monkeys because of their diet. These leaf monkeys are seen with long limbs and tails, long slender hands and feet and they have very short thumbs. Their muzzles are short and their face is usually a dark color and hairless. They don’t have cheek pouches, but they do have enlarged salivary glands which help them to digest leaves easier.  The pads on their butts, called ischial callosities, are separate from the females, united as one in males. The monkeys body lengths are anywhere from 20 – 26 inches and weigh about 13 pounds! Your bowling ball may weigh that much. Their face is a bit comical, like a ventriloquist figure, as they have prominent brow ridges which resemble raised eyebrows. The pointed crests on their heads make the leaf monkey very distinguishable. As seen above, the young are a bright apricot color which is a contrast from the black color of mom and dad.

DIET 

The Francois leaf monkey’s, both the young and the old,  eat mainly on leaves hence the name Leaf Monkey. Other dietary suppliments consist of fruit, buds, bark, seeds and flowers. Facinating enough, the Leaf Monkey drinks very little water.

REPRODUCTION AND GROWTH

These little monkeys, typically partake in single births following a gestation period of about 200 days. The infant monkey may nurse for up to two days, but once they are weaned, it will cease to have any contact with the mother. Very different from most other animals. The male leaf monkey becomes sexually active at about four years of age. Aren’t we glad our children don’t start that early? The females become sexually mature at the age of 3-4 years old. Physical growth is not complete for these little wonders until 6-7 years of age.

BEHAVIOR

These little guys are hilarious and noisy! They use both arms and legs to swing, bounce and crash through tree branches. Leaf monkeys are active during the day time and spend a good portion of their time in the trees. (Go figure, they’re monkeys right)? These leaf monkeys are really into grooming their self. About 5 hours a day. That’s longer than my wife takes, so don’t feel so bad guys when she takes a little longer to make herself look pretty for you, we all could be Francois’ Leaf Monkey’s and have to wait 5 hours!

ENDANGERED SPECIES

Unfortunately, these little guys ARE and endangered species. One is the fact that they are losing local habitat due to building, etc. The other problems they face is hunting by people. There is a belief that the Leaf Monkey body parts have medicinal value and therefore , they are hunted for that purpose. These little guys are widely inhabitants of the Indian subontinent, Burma and China going southward through Indo-China and malaya to Sumatra, Java and Borneo. They are native to northwest Vietnam, southeastern China and west-central Laos, where they inhabit tall riverside crags in tropical monsoon forest in limestone mountains.

Hope you have enjoyed this exclusive wildlife story and if you are ever in Asia, keep a look out for these beauties of creation.