Gee's Golden Lutung

Gee's golden langur is found in an area of approximately 30,000 square kilometres (12,000 sq mi), much of which is unsuitable habitat, bounded on the south by the Brahmaputra River, on the east by the Manas River, on the west by the Sankosh River, in Assam, India, and on the north by the Black Mountains of Bhutan. These biogeographical barriers are believed to have led to the radiation of species from the closely related capped langur (Trachypithecus pileatus). There are two primary sub-populations fragmented by the National Highway 27. The northern sub-population occupies the western portion of the Manas National Park, extending from the Sankosh River to the Manas River along the northern side of National Highway 27 and State Highway 2, reaching the India-Bhutan border. Conversely, the southern sub-population is situated along the southern side of NH27, extending to the Brahmaputra River. Population estimates of the 2020–21 survey, indicate a larger northern population, totaling 5,566 individuals distributed across 534 groups and 23 lone males. In contrast, the southern fragmented population consists of approximately 1,830 langurs organized into 173 groups and eight lone males. …

For the most part, the langur is confined to high trees where its long tail serves as a balancer when it leaps across branches. During the rainy season it obtains water from dew and rain-drenched leaves. Its diet is herbivorous, consisting of ripe and unripe fruits, mature and young leaves, seeds, buds and flowers. It generally lives in troops of about 8, with a ratio of several females to each adult male. The smallest golden langur troop was composed of four individuals, while the largest had 22, giving an average value of 8.2 individuals per troop. The adult sex ratio was 2.3 females to every male, although the majority of groups had only one adult male.

The earliest record of the golden langur is in an 1838 paper by Robert Boileau Pemberton which states that "Griffith observed these monkeys near Tongso in Central Bhutan." However, since Pemberton's work was lost and not rediscovered until the 1970s, the scientific discovery of the golden langur unfolded differently. In 1907, Edward Oswald Shebbeare—who was out with some hunters and forest rangers—reported seeing a "cream coloured langur" in the vicinity of the Jamduar. However, neither a photograph nor a live or dead specimen was presented at that time. The first reference to the golden langur in print, as an animal of unidentified taxonomic status, was in a 1919 publication that stated: "Pithecus sp? – A pale yellow coloured langur is common in the adjoining district of Goalpara (Assam). Jerdon reported one from Terai, the adjacent district on the (west) side, which Blanford suggested might be P. entellus." In February 1947, in the Forest Rest House visitors' book in Raimona, a few miles south of Jamduar, C. G. Baron reported seeing some langurs whose "whole body and tail is one colour – a light silvery-gold, somewhat like the hair of a blonde." A year later, back in Jamduar, H. E. …