COLOMBO — Monkeys were expected to be among the chief culprits identified as Sri Lanka carried out a nationwide survey on March 15 of crop-raiding animals. But in a small village near the Sinharaja Forest Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, an unusual population of langurs has captured attention, becoming a local tourist attraction. Purple-faced langurs (Semnopithecus vetulus) are found only in Sri Lanka and typically have a black coat with distinctive facial markings. But near the village of Lankagama, some individuals stand out, with coats that range from completely to partially white. Often mistakenly cited as a case of albinism, where the organism doesn’t produce any melanin, these white monkeys actually exhibit leucism, a partial loss of pigmentation, says Madura de Silva, president of the Wildlife Conservation Society of Galle (WCSG). It was a survey in 2011 by the WCSG that formally established the presence of these “snow-white monkeys” in Sinharaja, though local folklore describing ghostly white monkeys appearing in forests — regarded variously as omens of good or ill fortune — goes back centuries. During the WCSG survey, researchers documented 30 white langurs among the 14 troops they observed. Their presence has helped to transform Lankagama into an ecotourism hub. The main entry point into the Sinharaja reserve was previously another village, Kudawa. But growing awareness of the white monkeys meant an increase in tourists entering Lankagama, benefiting the local community. The WCSG also secured funding to build a culvert for the village and established the Sinharaja Base…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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