Endangered
Purple-faced langur
Semnopithecus vetulus
The purple-faced langur, also known as the purple-faced leaf monkey, is a Old World monkey that is endemic to Sri Lanka.
Appearance
The species tends to have whitish to gray short 'trousers' rounded off by purplish-black faces with white sideburns. Part of the back is covered with whitish fur, and tail is also furred with black and white mixed colors. The feet and hands are also purplish-black in color.
The smallest subspecies (S. V. Nestor) commonly weighs between 3.8 and 6 kg (8.4 and 13.2 lb).
Males measure 50 to 67.1 cm (19.7 to 26.4 in) in head-body length with a tail of 67 to 85.1 cm (26.4 to 33.5 in).
Range and habitat
The purple-faced langur is found in closed canopy forests in Sri Lanka's mountains and the southwestern part of the country, known as the "wet zone". Only 19% of Sri Lanka consists of forested areas. This habitat has decreased from 80% in 1980 to ~25% in 2001.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet
The purple-faced langur is mostly folivorous, but will also feed on fruits, flowers, and seeds. While they normally avoid human habitations, fruit such as jak (Artocarpus heterophyllus), rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum), banana (Musa balbisiana), and mango (Mangifera indica) may contribute up to 50% to their diet in cultivated areas.
Where the species' diet is currently heavily dependent cultivated fruits, the ability to derive sufficient nutrition may become impaired. Purple-faced langur feed on a less diverse diet than S. Priam, with a greater proportion of leaves.
In crisis
The species was once highly prevalent, found in suburban Colombo and the "wet zone" villages (areas with high temperatures and high humidity throughout the year, whilst rain deluges occur during the monsoon seasons), but rapid urbanization has led to a significant decrease in the population level of the monkeys. Efforts to help increase populations may help survival.
Purple-faced langur is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Purple-faced langur, Wikidata item Q101500289. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
