Lion-tailed macaque

This monkey is endangered and found nowhere else on earth outside the Western Ghats. Valparai is considered the best place in the world to see one in the wild. The Puduthotham estate troop is just ten minutes from town, and they're almost always there.

Why Valparai and nowhere else

The lion-tailed macaque lives in the rainforest canopy of the Western Ghats, and nowhere else on earth. It's one of the rarer primates in the world. The total wild population is so small that conservationists count troops one by one, not by the thousands.

The Valparai plateau holds several troops in small patches of forest left standing between the tea estates. Those patches are small and sit right next to estate roads. So animals that would stay hidden in unbroken rainforest sometimes sit at eye level, just a few metres from the road. That's why researchers and photographers come to Valparai specifically for this animal.

Recognising one

It has a black coat and a silver-grey mane running right around a black face — unmistakable once you've seen it. That mane is where its older English name, wanderoo, and its Tamil name, singa vaal kurangu, both come from. The tail ends in a small tuft, like a lion's.

They're quieter and far more wary than the bonnet macaques you'll see everywhere along the ghat road, and they stay high up. Look up into the canopy, not along the roadside.

When to look

Early morning and late afternoon, when the troop is moving and feeding. In the middle of a warm day, they rest high in the canopy — you could stand right underneath one and never see it.

The Puduthotham troop, a short drive from town, is the one people see most often — it uses a patch of forest close to the road. Sightings there are frequent, but never certain. This is a wild animal with its own home range, not an exhibit.

How to watch without doing harm

Never feed them. Fed troops come down to the road, and macaques on the road get hit by vehicles — that's a leading cause of death for this species here. A photo of a monkey taking food from your hand is a photo of something that will shorten its life.

Stay in or beside the vehicle, keep your voice down, and don't try to close the distance. If the troop moves away, let it go. Flash photography into the canopy doesn't help you — it just disturbs them.