Phayre’s leaf monkey (Trachypithecus phayrei), an endangered goggle-eyed primate species once widely distributed across many forests in North East India, is now confined to small fragmented patches in the states of Assam, Mizoram and Tripura in the region.
Tripura’s Sepahijala Wildlife Sanctuary is one of the few places where these monkeys can be spotted. But the monkeys, that feast on leaves of a wide variety of plant leaves (folivores), have developed an affinity for rubber in the mushrooming commercial plantations in and around the protected area.
In Bangladesh, which abuts Tripura, and is home to the species, the monkeys have taken a liking to the non-native invasive Acacia plants. The species (T. phayrei) is one of the most widely distributed of the broader group or genus (Trachypithecus) but one of the least studied in ecology, behaviour, genetics and systematics. Experts are concerned about the nutritional implications of the animals’ altering feeding…