15 Species of Monkeys Found in The Indian Subcontinent

India has wide range of destinations with diversity among the region and habitats such as forests, grasslands, wetlands and deserts. The bio diversity of India support variety of flora and fauna and the monkeys are one of them.

Spot the 10 Species of Unique Monkeys Found in India.

India is home to large family of monkeys species distributed from evergreen Western Ghats to north east states and dry forests of central India. The Phayre’s Langur is the state animal of Tripura but species of lutung.

Rhesus Macaques

The rhesus monkey is one of the most famous species of Old World monkeys and distributed in large population across the country. Rhesus Macaques is native to Asia and have a widest geographic ranges in India, Rajasthan, Delhi and Varanasi are few city place to located these monkeys in temples and society.

Bonnet Macaque

The Bonnet macaque are endemic to south India, The habitats including evergreen high forest and dry deciduous forest of the Western Ghat Mountains and some of the eastern ghat ranges as well. Bonnet monkey have a grayish brown back and a well defined circular cap along with long tail, two-thirds of its the length.

Assam Macaque

The Assam macaque family is native to Southeast Asia and endemic to Assam in India along with neighboring countries. Assam monkeys are yellowish-grey with dark brown facial skin and a small tail macaque species. Due to hunting and habitat loss the Assamese macaques are listed as near threatened species of macaque in India.

Arunachal Macaque

The Arunachal macaque is the latest discovered species of macaque found in deep forest of Arunachal Pradesh. Arunachal monkeys are relatively large with very dark face along with short tail, lives at high altitudes of mountain valley of Arunachal and one of the highly endangered species.

Stump Tailed Macaque

The Stump-tailed macaque or bear macaque is found in the valley of Brahmaputra River and extended to all other north east states along with the Himalayan region of India. Stump Tailed Macaque has dark brown thick fur covering its whole body and a short tail with pink or red faces.

Lion Tailed Macaque

The lion-tailed macaque is endemic to majestic Western Ghats of India and a species of an Old World monkey. Lion Tailed monkey is medium,black with silver-white mane around the head and a rainforest dweller.
It is one of the rarest species of macaque in the world and most engendered species in India.

Pig Tailed Macaque

The pig-tailed macaque is found in northeastern region of the country from Assam to Nagaland, Manipur and Tripura. Pig Tailed Macaque also called as northern pig-tailed macaque is a medium-sized species of primate.

Gray Langur

There are 6 species of gray langur or hanuman langur found in India, Black footed gray langur and tufted gray langur mostly found in forest of South India. These langur are also known leaf eating monkeys in India.

• Black Footed Gray Langur
• Tufted Gray Langur
• Kashmir Gray Langur
• Tarai Gray Langur
• Northern Plains Gray Langur
• Southern Plains Gray Langur

The Hanuman langurs are are biggest species of Old World monkeys found in the Indian subcontinent. Gray Langurs are large, gray or yellowish and black face, ears monkeys and the largest species of monkey found in Asia.

Other sub species of Gray Langurs in India are black-footed gray langur, Tufted gray langur and Kashmir gray langur.

Golden Langur

The Golden langur or Gee’s golden langur is one of the most beautiful and endangered primate species in India. The Amazing Golden langur is found only at the small region of Assam around the Brahmaputra River valley.

Capped Langur

The Capped Langur is a species of primate found in the tropical dry forests of northeast region of India and other neighboring countries. Capped Langur is some how looks same as gray langur but with an extra cap on head.

Nilgiri Langur

The Nilgiri Langur is native to Western Ghats of India mostly found in found in the Nilgiri Hills, Kodayar Hills and other parts of the region. Due to deforestation and poaching,Nilgiri Langur is fall in the category of endangered species in India.

White Cheeked Macaque

White Cheeked Macaque is a newly discovered species of primate, recently sighted in Arunachal Pradesh in northeastern India. The white cheeked macaque is similar to the other members of the Macaca in appearance, except the presence of white whiskers on the face.

Phayre’s Leaf Monkey

Phayre’s Leaf Monkey also known as Phayre’s langur is one of the rare species of lutung, found in food tree species of Tripura. Phayre’s langur mostly arboreal and feeds on leaves of a large number of tree species.

Nicobar Long Tailed Macaque

Nicobar Long Tailed Macaque also called as Nicobar monkey is actually a subspecies of the crab eating macaque, endemic to the three of the Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal. Nicobar monkey has brownish to grey fur and particularly noted in the Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve of India.

Tibetan Macaque

Tibetan macaque is very rare in India, only reported from high altitude forest of Arunachal in northeastern India. This macaque is the largest species of macaque found in India and also the second largest monkeys found in Asia.

Hoolock Gibbons – Only Ape of India

The Hoolock Gibbons is only species of Ape found in India and the second-largest of the gibbons. Western hoolock gibbon are found in small populations only few hundreds in northeast India. Hoolock Gibbons range is around the Brahmaputra and the Dibang Rivers along with seven sister states.

– Other Primates Species Found in India

Bengal Slow Loris

Bengal Slow Loris is native to the Indian subcontinent and most closely related to the Sunda slow loris. The Bengal slow loris is nocturnal and arboreal primate species and is the largest species of slow loris,restricted to a few isolated area of Assam, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh.

Slender Loris

The Slender loris is a species of primates found only in the rainforests India and Sri Lanka. Slender Loris is a small nocturnal animal lived in thick,wet and dry forests of southeastern Ghats of India.

The nocturnal animal diet on insects along with slugs, young leaves, flowers and shoots. Phayre’s Langur of Tripura is a species of lutung found in the forest of  Tripura.