To those of us driving to work or out on the river, monkeys are a familiar part of the Brunei Darussalam landscape. Borneo has two distinct groups of monkeys - on the one hand leaf monkeys and the peculiar proboscis monkey, and on the other hand, macaques. Leaf monkeys spend all of their time in trees, whereas macaques can sometimes be seen on the ground.
The long-tailed macaque ( Macaca fascicularis) is the monkey most commonly spotted on nature hikes or drives to the office. Its call, krra krra, gives the monkey its Malay name, kera. The long-tailed macaque is also called crab-eating macaque because it is common in coastal forests including mangrove and beach, and along rivers where it can easily catch and eat crabs, frogs, or insects. But macaques love other foods as well such as ripe fruit. Macaques therefore live sometimes close to humans where they soon lose their shyness and can become arrogant and even aggressive.
The leaf monkeys that can be seen most easily in Brunei are the silvered langurs. They tend to be most well-behaved, being naturally shy, not inquisitive and never showing aggression, certainly attributes for which the macaques are not noted. They are entirely dark grey and have a distinct crest of hairs on the top of their heads and around their faces, giving them a pretty appearance. Their infants have a surprising bright orange colour.
Silvered langurs live in small groups of five or six and are mainly found in coastal forests, where they feed on leaves, shoots, and fruits. They are also seen in riverine and swamp forests. They appear to co-exist well with the macaque and have been seen feeding on the same branch on a number of occasions. They appear to be more confident in groups, and are less likely to leave their feeding area to 'escape' the intrepid observer.
The silvered langur could, at least until the end of the 1992, be regularly seen close to Panaga, in the swamp forest to the rear of the G4/5 housing area. At present, we have no confirmation of their presence there.
Both the leaf monkeys and the macaques look quite sizeable with a head and body length of up to 60 cm for the macaques and up to 75 cm for the leaf monkeys. They are very light in weight, though, even the taller males rarely exceed 7 kilograms.
© Panaga Natural History Society (PNHS) |
