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Description
On the ledge of a limestone cliff in Guizhou Province, China, a mother François' langur (Trachypithecus francoisi) sits near her playful infant to make sure the young monkey does not do anything too dangerous like jump off the cliff, a short distance away from the rest of the troop. While crawling around on the rock surface, the baby langur comes across an interesting rodent it had never seen before. Complex-toothed flying squirrels (Trogopterus xanthipes) also live in this high-altitude terrain, but as the squirrels are nocturnal while the monkeys are diurnal such an encounter is a rare occurrence, and this flying squirrel just happened to have strayed from its nest a bit late into the day.

Drawing made for another Animal of the Month event (www.deviantart.com/moonymina/j… ) from the Wildlife--Awareness group (www.deviantart.com/wildlife--a… ).

Also called the Tonkin leaf monkey or white side-burned black langur, the François' langur is a species of Old World monkey growing 50 to 60 centimeters long found in southwestern China and northern Vietnam. Within this range it inhabits mainly mountainous limestone karst terrain near evergreen forests, eating mainly young leaves as in other species in the Trachypithecus genus (which are commonly called leaf monkeys or lutungs). Like most monkeys this lutung is social and forms groups, usually of around 12, though unlike some other monkeys these are led by females. While the adult langur is jet black with some white patterns on the face, the babies are born with a bright orange coat that gradually darkens with age. Unfortunately like many primates, the François' langur is an endangered species facing threats from habitat loss and human hunting, the destruction of the limestone cliffs to make space for cultivation limits their habitat availability and some locals hunting them for traditional medicine (like with rhino horn and pangolin scales). It is thought that less than 2,000 of these monkeys are left and that number is decreasing.

Named for how its teeth differ from those of related species, the complex-toothed flying squirrel grows around 30 centimeters long and is found at high altitudes in southern China on mountain terrain. A night-active animal, it usually spends daylight hours in a nest on a cliff slope around 30 meters above the ground and emerges at night to feed on leaves, seeds and fruits. Like other flying squirrel species, this rodent cannot truly fly, but is able to glide using parachute-like skin membranes between its limbs (folded in this image) to escape predators and cover more ground while foraging. This species is listed as 'near threatened' by the IUCN as it faces problems from habitat reduction and it is also hunted for meat and collection of its dung, which is used to make a medicinal tea. While healing squirrel shit tea may sound like more nonsense like rhino horn (made of the same thing as human toenails) being medicinal, at least one paper has found that these droppings contain antithrombotic (prevents blood-clotting) components (this one published in 2010 www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10… ) so maybe the Chinese are onto something here.

The birds in the background are Himalayan swiftlets (Aerodramus brevirostris) by the way.

Description
On the ledge of a limestone cliff in Guizhou Province, China, a mother François' langur (Trachypithecus francoisi) sits near her playful infant to make sure the young monkey does not do anything too dangerous like jump off the cliff, a short distance away from the rest of the troop. While crawling around on the rock surface, the baby langur comes across an interesting rodent it had never seen before. Complex-toothed flying squirrels (Trogopterus xanthipes) also live in this high-altitude terrain, but as the squirrels are nocturnal while the monkeys are diurnal such an encounter is a rare occurrence, and this flying squirrel just happened to have strayed from its nest a bit late into the day.

Drawing made for another Animal of the Month event (www.deviantart.com/moonymina/j… ) from the Wildlife--Awareness group (www.deviantart.com/wildlife--a… ).

Also called the Tonkin leaf monkey or white side-burned black langur, the François' langur is a species of Old World monkey growing 50 to 60 centimeters long found in southwestern China and northern Vietnam. Within this range it inhabits mainly mountainous limestone karst terrain near evergreen forests, eating mainly young leaves as in other species in the Trachypithecus genus (which are commonly called leaf monkeys or lutungs). Like most monkeys this lutung is social and forms groups, usually of around 12, though unlike some other monkeys these are led by females. While the adult langur is jet black with some white patterns on the face, the babies are born with a bright orange coat that gradually darkens with age. Unfortunately like many primates, the François' langur is an endangered species facing threats from habitat loss and human hunting, the destruction of the limestone cliffs to make space for cultivation limits their habitat availability and some locals hunting them for traditional medicine (like with rhino horn and pangolin scales). It is thought that less than 2,000 of these monkeys are left and that number is decreasing.

Named for how its teeth differ from those of related species, the complex-toothed flying squirrel grows around 30 centimeters long and is found at high altitudes in southern China on mountain terrain. A night-active animal, it usually spends daylight hours in a nest on a cliff slope around 30 meters above the ground and emerges at night to feed on leaves, seeds and fruits. Like other flying squirrel species, this rodent cannot truly fly, but is able to glide using parachute-like skin membranes between its limbs (folded in this image) to escape predators and cover more ground while foraging. This species is listed as 'near threatened' by the IUCN as it faces problems from habitat reduction and it is also hunted for meat and collection of its dung, which is used to make a medicinal tea. While healing squirrel shit tea may sound like more nonsense like rhino horn (made of the same thing as human toenails) being medicinal, at least one paper has found that these droppings contain antithrombotic (prevents blood-clotting) components (this one published in 2010 www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10… ) so maybe the Chinese are onto something here.

The birds in the background are Himalayan swiftlets (Aerodramus brevirostris) by the way.