EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

High Country Langur

Nepal Gray Langur (Semnopithecus schistaceus), Family Cercopithecidae
Bhutan

Explanation:  Visually and vocally asserting its treetop territory is this Nepal Gray Langur that we spotted while driving the twisty winding roads between Punakha and Paro, Bhutan.  

We are in the mid-elevation Himalayas here, in forests of pine and rhododendron.  And here resides the Nepal Gray Langur, a primate of the high country, ranging from 4,900 feet up to 13,000 feet (1,500 to 4,000 meters) elevation.  

This is not your lowland langur, but a different species adapted to the colder, thinner-air high country.  
  

Recent studies have confirmed that this high-country primate is indeed a separate species from the more widespread, lower-elevation Hanuman langur, although the taxonomy of that lowland form is still debated.  

Resting in its pine spire is this
Nepal gray langur ... named Nepal
although here we are in the
adjacent country of Bhutan.

According to dictionary.com,
the word langur dates to 1820 to 1830,
derived from the Hindi word langur,
cf. Sanskrit langulin meaning
"having a tail."

Indeed, it does.