India GO
Nilgiri langur
A glossy black leaf-eating monkey with a golden-brown head, endemic to the Western Ghats and living in troops in the evergreen forest between about 300 and 2,500 m.
How to recognise it
Look up into the shola canopy along the road. The call is a deep resonant whoop repeated at intervals, usually at dawn, and carries much further than the animal is visible.
Protection
Schedule I, Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972
Where to see it
Munnar
Fewer than ten thousand mature individuals are estimated to remain. It has been hunted for supposed medicinal value, which is one reason troops away from protected forest stay high and wary.
Eravikulam National Park (in season) · Pampadum Shola National Park (Vattavada road) (in season) · Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary (in season)
Ooty & Coonoor
Present around Kotagiri, Coonoor and Ooty in the remaining forest, but not a garden animal: a reasonable hope on a forested road, not something to expect in a park.
Lamb's Rock · Catherine Falls · Pykara Lake & Falls