Lion-tailed macaque
Context
The lion-tailed macaque is facing increasing threats due to human-wildlife interactions. Events such as habitat encroachment are posing significant threats to their natural behaviour and their population.
Relevance:
GS-03 (Conservation)
Key Highlights:
- Nearly 25% of the species in the Western Ghats interact with humans.
- This includes behaviours like accepting food from tourists, scavenging waste, and entering human settlements.
- This leads to malnutrition, diseases, and increases vulnerability to road accidents.
- Conservation Status:
- It is an endangered species on the IUCN Red List and protected under CITES Appendix I.
- The lion-tailed macaque faces threats from habitat loss, fragmentation, and human encroachment, with only about 4,200 individuals remaining.
- Long-term Consequences:
- Increased interaction with humans has led to zoonotic disease risks, diet-related illnesses, reduced natural foraging, and population decline caused by injuries, road accidents, and stress-induced mortality.
Lion-tailed macaque:
- The lion-tailed macaque is one of the smallest macaque species.
- They are usually shy and stay within their familiar range in hierarchical groups of 10 to 20 members.
- It is also known as “the wanderoo” and “beard ape.”
- One distinct feature amongst the group is that the dominant male emit a loud, human-like ‘whoops’ to alert outsiders entering their territory
- They are native to the rainforests of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka.
Mitigation Measures:
- The Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF) has developed canopy corridors and implemented regulations to curb feeding and safely guide macaques across roads, aiming to lessen their reliance on human settlements and reduce roadkill incidents.
- The Tamil Nadu government has announced the establishment of a Tamil Nadu Endangered Species Conservation Fund with a corpus of Rs. 50 crore, which includes conservation efforts for the lion-tailed macaque.
- The Tamil Nadu Forest Department plans to conduct a study to estimate the macaque population and devise a comprehensive conservation strategy.
