Douc
| Douc[1] | ||||||||||||||
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 Red-shanked Douc (Pygathrix nemaeus) at the Philadelphia Zoo | ||||||||||||||
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| Simia nemaeus Linnaeus, 1771 | ||||||||||||||
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Pygathrix nemaeus |
The doucs or douc langurs make up the genus Pygathrix, which consists of these 3 species:
- Red-shanked Douc, Pygathrix nemaeus
- Black-shanked Douc, Pygathrix nigripes
- Gray-shanked Douc, Pygathrix cinerea
These colobine Old World monkeys have an extremely striking appearance. The Red-shanked Douc characteristically has bright maroon legs and reddish patches around the eyes. In contrast, the Grey-shanked Douc is less vibrant, with speckled grey legs and orange markings on the face. Both have dappled grey bodies, black hands and feet and white cheeks, although the cheek hairs of the Red-shanked Douc are much longer. The Black-shanked Douc has black legs. Their long hind limbs and tail allow these monkeys to be wonderfully agile in their treetop habitat.
Even though they are known as "douc langurs", they are in fact more closely related to the Proboscis Monkey and snub-nosed monkeys, than to any of the langurs. They are part of the Colobinae subfamily of the Cercopithecidae family.
References
- Groves, Colin (16 November 2005). in Wilson, D. E., and Reeder, D. M. (eds): Mammal Species of the World, 3rd edition, Johns Hopkins University Press, 173. ISBN 0-801-88221-4.
External links
- ARKive - images and movies of the black-shanked douc (Pygathrix nigripes)
- Primate Info Net Pygathrix Factsheets
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Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; from the article "Douc". Image Credit.
