Langurs lap up chapatis from man’s hand

Langurs lap up chapatis from man’s hand

Video Link:-   https://youtu.be/eb-_Emv210Q

Sumesh Rajan

Mumbai: October 17, 2018

Though the Gray Langurs or Hanuman Langur – an Asian species of monkeys – are primarily leaf-eaters, their interactions with human beings, mainly devotees who throng religious places located along forest areas, has marked a change in their diet. These wild animals, which are basically shy in nature, have also evolved their relationship with humans.

 

A 2.30 minutes long video shot of a person feeding chapatis to Langurs near a Sufi shrine in Gujarat, India, doing the rounds on WhatsApp, vouches this.

The middle-aged man sitting on the ground is surrounded by a large group of Langurs. He doles out Chapatis (unleavened flatbread) from a packed packet, one by one to the simians which come to him. Within a minute and a half, the first packet gets over, and one his associate hands him a second packet of chapattis, and the Langurs rush back to grab the chapatis. Now the man just extends the packet to the monkey, telling them to take as much as they want.

“Although Langurs are basically plant eaters, they are now habituated with various food substances offered by tourists. Food is the only factor which makes them want to interact with human beings very closely. They maintain a systematic social life, and their interactions with tourists are so friendly that it can be hardly differentiated from that of humans,” says biologist Prafulla Mohanty.