Socioecology of Hanuman langurs: The story of their success

The story of the monkey god Hanuman (Fig. 1) is a story of success, forever captured in the Indian national epic Ramayana. Hanuman was the strenuous a nd resourceful general of an army of monkeys serving Lord Rama in rescuing his wife Sita from imprisonment at Sri Lanka. With a single leap, Hanuman j umped from the coast of India to the island of Sri Lanka to spy on the situ ation. By setting the whole town on fire he distracted the guards and, toge ther with his monkey army, later helped to rescue Sita. Many pious Hindus r egard the black ("burnt") skin of the Hanuman langurs (Semnopithecus entell us, also known as Presbytis entellus) as proof that they are the living des cendants of the monkey god Hanuman (Fig. 2). Moreover, the story of Hanuman langurs also is a story of success. We aim to summarize the current knowle dge of the socioecology of Hanuman langurs, referring particularly to new d ata from our study site of Ramnagar in southern Nepal (Box 1), and to pinpo int promising directions for future research.