Lion Tailed Macaque- A Chance Encounter

It was in August 2008, I went on a recce tour to Valparai with Sinna and Mountain Kingdoms UK reps Linda and Marian to do a trial trip on the recently designed trek tour called ‘Tea & Spice trails of South India.’ The main objective was to let Linda & Marian to do all day treks as per the itinerary so that they can sell the new package better in UK market. As mentioned in my earlier blog about Valparai, we were fortunate to sight bisons, elephants, porcupines, hornbills etc during our three days trek & stay in Valparai. Third day, when we were about to leave for Madurai our local guide Chinnaswami phoned me with a great news that he had spotted a group of lion tailed macaques (short-tailed monkeys of rocky regions of Asia and Africa) in the Puthuthotam estate, which is about 2kms from Valparai Town towards Pollachi Route
Chinnaswami can be termed as an interesting feature of treks in Valparai. He is a special character, as you won’t find any such ‘species’ anywhere else. Being a retired watcher of Wood Briar estate in Valparai, he knows the place like the palm of his hands. During his tenure he used to guard the estate day and night preventing large mammals like elephants, bisons, wild bear etc from entering the plantation. He can predict the presence of animals in the vicinity by the smell and knows the physiology of almost all the animals found in Valparai. Even though he doesn’t know English at all, he somehow succeeds in explaining to the English speaking clients the interesting things that come across our treks like the birds, animals, pugmarks, animal droppings, tea picking, coffee cultivation etc. He will be happy at the end of the day if we offer some special drinks as energy boosters. I have done tremendous treks in this area with this guy and was always overwhelmed by his sincerity and dedication.

Back to the topic... four of us started to Puthuthotam estate without wasting much time.....It took about 20 mins to reach the place, where all got enough time to be ready with cameras. Chinnaswami joined us from the main road and we drove into the estate workers line. The sight was just awesome, we saw a large troop of monkeys scattered all over the place. Lion-tailed macaques are one of the rarest as well as the most endangered primates. Presently, their population is estimated to be around 2,500-3000. Out of it, the major population is found around Valparai or Anamalais and the rest in other parts of Western Ghats like Eravikulam, Periyar etc. Normally they are very shy and prefer to stay at a height of 100 ft above the ground. But the scene we found here was just the opposite.

They were hovering above the tea plantation workers’ quarters. After taking many snaps, Chinnaswami took us to the workers’ lines where we saw some LTMS sitting on the roof. They all looked like tamed monkeys. The people there came with some biscuits from the house and gave to monkeys. Sinna & Marian had some great time with their SLR’s by capturing from all possible angles. The workers there even gave a glass of tea to these monkeys, when one of them even came all the way down from tree grabbed the glass, drank fully and returned the glass like an obedient school boy. Then I felt confident and thought of trying my luck. I borrowed a couple of biscuits from Chinnaswami and offered it to the monkeys. It was a stunning experience that 2-3 monkeys came very close to me and grabbed it from me with out any hesitation. Their hands looked exactly like human hands with curved nails and with all palm prints.

We had a small chat with the workers there and they said this group of highly endangered monkeys pay visits to their quarters every Sunday. It is easy to find LTMs in Puthothtam area due to the presence of workers’ lines, number of fig and jack fruit trees. We spend around 2 hours there with out realising that the whole day’s schedule was messed up by that time.Nevertheless, this unplanned meeting with this rare species at close quarters was a welcome interruption...a memorable chance encounter.