Monkeys of Tamil Nadu

Monkeys of Tamil Nadu

It's been a while since I left the habit of writing blogs. To revive that I have decided to write this blog. 

For the past 7 years I have been into photography and my love towards nature and wildlife photography can’t be expressed in words.

In this blog I am going to share my view on my friends from the wild namely The Bonnet Macaque, Grey Langur and the famous LTM (Lion Tailed Macaque). These three have their own uniqueness in every aspect of their daily life.

Monkeys are very common to see in India especially the Bonnet Macaque can be spotted easily in the Southern parts of India. 

India is a country consisting of various culture, tradition and languages. Monkeys generally in India are referred as both as incarnation of God Hanuman and they are also referred as our ancestors due to their characteristic behaviour.

                                                                                                            

Bonnet Macaque (Macaca radiata)

It is the commonly seen monkey in Tamil Nadu. These are predominantly seen in the hilly areas of Tamil Nadu. I have taken some pictures of them in the areas namely Manjolai, Mel Nambi Kovil , Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, Karaiyar and near Sorimuthu Nainar Kovil.

The Bonnets are 35-70cm long and they are in dusky or yellow in colour. The key characteristic thing about them is their facial expression which made me thing that this is the reason that people say that humans came from monkeys.

These can be mostly spotted in hilly areas of Tamil Nadu in large group. These large groups will definitely consist of minimum of 3 families with cute small babies. As I said early, they are known for their facial expressions and they are the perfect models for photographers in the wild.

Now let’s talk about the small ones. They are literally mesmerizing to view and the activities they do will pull us to our childhood memories and personally I like the little ones when they play with their brothers and sisters with a lot of fight and naughtiness with maximum energy.

As I said earlier these upcoming photos will reveal the actual faces of the monkeys

 

Planning for the next meal

Waiting for some more

Got it

The above two photos perfectly represents the connection between them and our self.

Mom's love

After taking the above four photos I felt myself in the small monkey. During my childhood I would do the same activity that the small one did. My mom would be sleeping with her big snoring sound, which makes me also to go and lie with her and sleep.

group photo... say cheese....

Twins in the wild

The perfect human look

Save water says the monkey

Its bit unhappy to see this photo. Look what plastic is doing to the environment

Time for family photo

Please do look at this photo carefully

Do the photographer look like an outsider

The natural spas of the monkeys

Grey Langur (Semnopithecus)

Now let’s move on to my next friend the Grey Langur who is also commonly seen in the hilly areas of the Southern Indian parts of India.

They have a silvery fur body and black face. The most magnetic feature is the pointed spiky hairstyle of them, similarly like the Bonnet Macaques these are also very hyperactive especially the young ones. 

With respective to to their long tails they are referred as the god Hanuman from Ramayana according to Hindu Mythology. These are also called as Hanuman Langur.

I have taken pics of these in the areas namely  Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve and near Sorimuthu Nainar Kovil.

Looking out for predators

Seriously an old man's look

Lion Tailed Macaque (Macaca silenus)

Lion Tailed Macaque(LTM)  is the endangered monkey species among this three and it is seen in hilly areas of the Western Ghats. 

LTMs have a black furry body and grayish furry area around it's face. It is not like the other two, it is highly sensitive towards human being. 

I had the opportunity to see them not take pictures of them in a high canopy in Parambikulam Tiger Reserve in the year 2012. I only had the opportunity of clicking pictures of it in Anna Arignar Zoological Park near Chennai during a wildlife photography workshop in the year 2019 with Rathika Ramasamy Mam.

King of the gang

Thank You

A Discussion with Grandpa during January 2015 on House Sparrows in our Native Village

My native village is Seelathikulam , Radhapuram Taluk , Tirunelveli district,Tamil Nadu. Do you know about house sparrows? House Sparrows (Passer domesticus) are the native of India. Now a days we can't see house sparrows in the urban surroundings, but rarely see them in some remote villages of South Tamil Nadu. We can see house sparrows in my native village.

 I asked my grandfather why there are house sparrows only in our village. He told that house sparrows would make their nest in the small cuboidal shape holes present between the walls and tiles of the roof of the houses in the villages. He took me to a place in top of our ancestral home. It was filled with darkness. He showed me the eggs of the house sparrows. I was astonished seeing it because it was in the cuboidal holes seen in walls of the house. The hole was filled with twigs and dried leaves. I asked my grandfather why there are twigs and dried leaves. He told that the house sparrows will have the twigs and dried leaves to safeguard them from the cool nights which keep them warm.

I also enquired him whether there are house sparrows all over our villages. He said yes and he took me to show the house sparrows all over our village. My grandfather told that there are very less house sparrows found in the urban areas. A question came in my mind and I asked my grandfather why there are no house sparrows seen in urban areas. He told that there are no holes seen in the walls of the houses in the urban and he also told that many of the sparrows were killed due to the radioactive signals emitted by the cell phone towers. Now we started conserving the sparrows of our village. Because of these conservation tasks of the house sparrows we didn't change the traditional styles of building our homes.

LET US ALL JOIN HANDS TO CONSERVE SUCH BEAUTIFUL HOUSE SPARROWS

WORLD SPARROW DAY, 2016