As I was passing by

Thanks for the presence!

Surili's oddity

 Not common to have these White-thighed Surilis down on the ground and fearless in close proximity to human beings.

An initial squabble when the Surili was chased off by the Long-tailed Macaque but all seemed to end well when the Surili returned and stayed put.

Another one alone close-by.

The young ones remained rather timid, keeping their distance and scampering off at the slightest aggression from the Macaque or approach of hill walkers.

The diet of the Surilis comprises mainly leaves, fruits, seeds and flowers.  Here they are seen to feast on rubber seeds, sitting in the middle of the walkway, oblivious to my presence and movements as I approached to zoom in on them.  Most unusual disregard for human presence!

Tree of surilis

 The tree was hanging with primates as I almost exclaimed out loud to myself as I suddenly glimpsed a wave of limbs!

The baby White-thighed Surili (Presbytis siamensis) almost froze when I stopped below it and I could see apprehension in its eyes.  To the rescue, as I saw its mother appear suddenly before its baby.

As natural as ....

 How could one not be heartened when one encounters something that is as it should be - White-thighed Surilis (Presbytis siamensis) feeding off leaves, their natural food, and not 'fake food' left behind by hill walkers.

The Surilis' diet is primarily young leaf shoots, seeds and forest fruits.

These primates are rarely seen alone, and as expected, there's more than one feasting.

The Surili way

 And so it should be, as the White-thighed Surili (Presbytis siamensis) shows, feeding quietly on young leaf shoots, among their diet of seeds and forest fruits.

It's almost refreshing to watch this one so gentle with its food, unlike the Long-tailed Macaques that are more aggressive for their food source.

And this one paid absolutely no attention to me as it slowly continued to feed as if it had all the time in the world, uhh, as it really has.

As I was passing by

 

As soft as one that surrenders naturally.

Lone Surili

This is my first sighting of the White-thighed Surili in the taman, and a loner.  It was simply sitting there when I first spotted it but eventually left, not because it spotted me in turn but looked like it was seeking something.

As fast as it climbed up the tree, it did down and away it went.

This reminded me of the last time I came across a family of Surilis in the bukit, and it has always been a family the couple of times they were sighted.

Unexpected Surili opportunity

It was fortunate that I decided to check out the sounds of jumping and swinging, and falling twigs and leaves.  It turned out to be a group of White-thighed Surilis, a species of the Leaf Monkeys.  They are also known as Pale-thighed Langurs, taking their name after the whitish fur on their legs.  My previous encounter in the bukit with these monkeys were that they were very shy, watching from atop trees and moving on when spotted, unlike the more aggressive Macaques.  Thus I was pretty lucky when these few spotted were very much preoccupied, and those that were not, did not take off immediately when they spotted me.

This was the first one that I spotted and it went on chomping on what I could make out to be young leaves even when I was photographing it although it spied me, but it did move on eventually when I tried to get closer for my shots.
It's interesting to learn that these primates have multi-chambered stomachs to help in digestion of leafy matters and for toxins to be neutralised.

Close-ups of the beautiful Surili and its fine fur.

Its distinct dark tail was so long I couldn't fit it into my usual bird portrait shot.

Meanwhile a couple were seen lazing about.

My prized images would be of this adult and young.

A typical monkey moment as the young bit into the adult.

We could take a lesson or two from these two how to slump and de-stress, that is until one spotted me.

I felt that I was intruding when this one saw me and I did quickly move on, leaving the group alone, grateful that I had such an extended time getting precious images of this shy species.

Some facts/extracts on this species:

1. The white-thighed surili is classified as Near Threatened (NT) on the IUCN Red List and is listed on Appendix II of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species).

2. The white-thighed surili lives in a variety of different forest types, including forests in lowlands and hills, swamp and lowland wet forest, and even disturbed areas such as plantations and orchards ... The loss of extensive tracts of forest in Southeast Asia poses a significant threat to the white-thighed surili.

3. ... the white-thighed surili (Presbytis siamensis) is a medium-sized, slenderly built monkey with a long tail, a short muzzle and relatively long fur. The top of its head and its back tend to be a dark greyish-brown, while the underside of the body, including the undersides of the tail, legs and arms, tends to be a lighter pale grey to white. There is also a large whitish patch on the outside of the legs, from which the white-thighed surili gets its name. The hands, feet, and outer half of the white-thighed surili’s tail are black.

The white-thighed surili’s face is characterised by poorly developed brow-ridges and indistinct pale rings around the eyes, with the rest of the facial skin being dark grey to blackish ... there is a crest of fur on the head.  Infants are lighter in colour than the adults, with just a dark cross-shaped pattern up the back and across the arms.

4. ... the white-thighed surili is a diurnal forest dweller, with a diet consisting of leaves, flowers, fruit and seeds. The proportion of fruit and seeds in its diet is quite high compared with most other species in its genus.