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Primate Species Profile

Red-shanked Douc Langurs

What are their names?
Scientific name: Pygathrix nemaeus
English name: Red-shanked douc langurs

How are they classified?
Order: Primata
Family: Cercopithecidae

Did you know.....

-That Douc langurs are leaf-eating monkeys with long intestines and very large stomachs to get nutrients out of leaves. Leaves are difficult to digest, so therefore, the langurs spend most of their time sleeping in order to properly digest them. They leaves they eat ferment inside them as part of their natural digestion, which releases bubbles of gas and causes them to burp!

-Douc langurs have a specific "playface" in which the eyes are closed, exposing very pale blue eyelids.

-The tails of Douc langurs are actually longer than their body.

-Douc langur babies are very susceptible to the pet trade because they are so cute.

Unfortunately most of these babies die due to lack of proper nutrients because their owners feed them only fruits - and they need many other nutrients for a balanced, healthy diet. Where do they live?

Douc langurs are found most frequently in primary evergreen forests of Vietnam and
Laos (also in Cambodia), at around 300-2000 meters elevation.

Recent fieldwork has demonstrated that although douc lagurs were once thought to have a restricted habitat, they are actually found in a variety of habitats. While douc langur monkeys are restricted to wooded areas, they occur in a variety of forest types.

Populations of doucs have been located from both monsoon forests as well as rainforests and include: semi-evergreen, lowland lower montane and upper montane forest types.

What are their general characteristics?

Description: Douc langurs appear as if dressed in costume. They have grey-black underparts, and the upper part of the leg is also black, and finally continuing down the knee and below are orange-red. Cheeks and throat are white, and the hands, feet, brow, and shoulders are a contrasting black. The tail, forearms, and genital region are also white. There is no sexual dimorphism in the size of douc langurs, and the size ranges are the following: the body length ranges from 23.1-23.5 inches, the tail length ranges from
23.5-26.8 inches, and their weights range from 18.1-24.0 lbs.

Diet: Douc langurs are vegetarians, getting adequate protien and fluid by eating leaves, buds, fruit, and flowers. They eat 50 species of plant but no animals. At the zoo, the animals eat primate chow and various types of greens that they get in a rotating diet.
That way the animals get to choose which type of green they want.

The keepers at the zoo also like to include enrichment activities in the feeding process.

This includes using puzzle feeders and having the animals fish their food out of the water (since they like to soak thier chow!).

Mating and caring for young: Douc langurs live in multimale-multifemale groups with 2 females to one male. Allo-mothering is also common in captivity, which is the sharing of
the