Habitat loss puts lion-tailed macaque in IUCN endangered list for the sixth time

Lion-tailed macaque, a primate endemic to small and severely fragmented rainforests of the Western Ghats in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, continues to be in the ‘endangered’ category in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The latest conservation status of the primate was updated in the IUCN database recently based on technical reports over the years from a group of researchers including Mewa Singh of the University of Mysore, Ajith Kumar of the Centre for Wildlife Studies, and Honnavalli N. Kumara of the Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History. Capture and release of bonnet macaque from human habitations to the habitat of LTMs could also affect their health as the former primate can cause the spread of novel parasites that was published in a 2019 paper titled ‘Prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites in lion-tailed macaque Macaca silenus in central Western Ghats, India’ with Shanthala Kumar as the lead author. Low-ranking individuals were found foraging human foods at higher frequencies compared to dominant individuals possibly due to delayed access to food as privileged first access being reserved for dominant members of the troop,” she said.