Lion-tailed Macaque

About the Lion-tailed Macaque

The lion-tailed macaque (Macaca silenus), locally called wanderoo, is an Old World monkey endemic to the Western Ghats of South India. Lion-tailed macaques are covered in black fur, and have a striking gray or silver mane that surrounds the face in both sexes. The face itself is hairless and black in adults, but pinkish in infants less than a year old. Infants are born with no mane, which begins to growth about two months after birth. 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. The size of their tail is about 25 cm (9.8 in) in length. Their eyes are a shade of hazelnut with highlighting black eyelids.

Lion-tailed macaques, like other macaques, have deep cheek pouches used for storing food, and are quadrupedal with opposable digits. The mane that surrounds its face gives this monkey its German name Bartaffe – "beard ape". With a head-body length of 42–61 cm (17–24 in) and a weight of 2–10 kg (4.4–22.0 lb), it ranks among the smaller macaques species.

The lion-tailed macaque is a rainforest dweller, often found in the upper canopy of tropical moist... Wikipedia →