I had so much fun writing about an interesting Old World Monkey yesterday that I thought we would do it again today. Instead of hanging out in the rocky regions of Ethiopia though, we are heading the mangrove and riverine forests of Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo. What do we hope to find throughout these beautiful forests? The Silvery Lutung of course! This Old World Monkey is also known as the Silver Leaf Monkey and the Silvery Langur so pick the name you like best and lets learn a little more about today’s primate.
One Long Tail
The Silvery Lutung has a much different lifestyle compared to yesterdays Gelada. They spend the majority of their time hanging out in the trees and mostly feast on leaves with a few fruits and seeds thrown in for good measure. Unlike other arboreal monkey’s the Silvery Lutung does not have a prehensile tail that they can use as an extra hand. With that said, their tail is still very long and helps balance the monkey as they make their way through their tree top home. As well, their tail makes them look pretty cool.
One Long Intestine
The interesting part of the Silvery Lutung is their stomach. They actually have a 3 chambered stomach, which has some similar traits to a cow’s stomach. This allows our monkey friend to digest cellulose by fermenting this plant material. Besides their stomach, they also have a very long intestine that generally has several pouches along its length, which carries on further fermentation. This unique setup provides the Silvery Lutung with an advantage over other animals of the forest, mainly it lets them feast on vegetation that most animals can’t digest very well. This ensures they will have more than enough food to go around.
One Long Trip
It is a good thing they have plenty of food to share since they are commonly found in families that have anywhere between 9 and 40 individuals. That is a lot of mouths to feed! Usually these groups will have one male with many adult females that communally monkey-sit the babies. Throughout the day these monkey’s may travel up to 500 m (1600 feet), and hardly leave the trees. At times, the females will break off and form their own “all female” cliques, however, all family members come back and sleep together in the same tree during the night. I guess it is important for the ladies to get away and have some fun with just the girls.
I guess we are done monkeying around today. Thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of your day.
