White-headed Langur

Taxobox
name = White-headed LangurMSW3 Groves]
status = CR
status_system = iucn3.1
status_ref = IUCN2006 | assessors = Eudey, A. & Members of the Primate Specialist Group | year = 2000 | title = Trachypithecus poliocephalus | id = 22045 | downloaded = 2007-03-16]
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
ordo = Primates
familia = Cercopithecidae
genus = "Trachypithecus"
species_group = "T. francoisi"
species = "T. poliocephalus"
binomial = "Trachypithecus poliocephalus"
binomial_authority = (Trouessart, 1911)

The White-headed Langur ("Trachypithecus poliocephalus") is a critically endangered langur from Cat Ba Island, Vietnam ("T. p. poliocephalus"), and Guangxi, China ("T. p. leucocephalus"). Both taxa are overall blackish, but the crown, cheeks and neck are yellowish in "T. p. poliocephalus", while they, as suggested by its scientific name, are white in "T. p. leucocephalus". [ [http://www.arkive.org/species/GES/mammals/Trachypithecus_poliocephalus/ White-headed langur (Trachypithecus poliocephalus).] ARKive. Accessed 2008-07-15] As all members of the "Trachypithecus francoisi" species group, this social, diurnal lutung is found in limestone forests. [cite book |author=Rowe, N. |year=1996 |title=The Pictorial Guide to the Living Primates |publisher=Pogonia Press, Charlestown, Rhode Island |isbn=0-9648825-0-7]

The nominate subspecies, often known as the Golden-headed or Cat Ba Langur, is among the rarest primates in the world, and possibly the rarest primate in Asia. [Stenke, R., Phan Duy Thuc and Nadler, T. 2007. [http://www.primate-sg.org/poliocephalus07.htm Golden-headed Langur or Cat Ba Langur.] In: Primates in Peril: The World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates 2006–2008, R. A. Mittermeier et al. (compilers), pp.14-15. Unpublished report, IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group (PSG), International Primatological Society (IPS), and Conservation International (CI), Arlington, VA.] The taxonomic position of the Chinese population, while also highly endangered, [Eudey, A. & Members of the Primate Specialist Group. 2000. [http://www.iucnredlist.org/search/details.php/39872/all "Trachypithecus poliocephalus ssp. leucocephalus."] 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2007.] is more confusing. It has been considered a partially albinistic population of the Francois' Langur ("T. francoisi"), a subspecies of Francois' Langur,Bradon-Jones, D. 1995. "A revision of the Asian pied leaf monkeys (Mammalia: Cercopithecidae: Superspecies Semnopithecus auratus), with the description of a new subspecies." Raffles Bull. Zool. 43: 3-43] a valid species ("T. leucocephalus"), or a subspecies, "T. poliocephalus leucocephalus". Comparably, "poliocephalus" was considered a subspecies of Francois' Langur until 1995.

References

External links

* [http://www.catbalangur.org/Langur.htm The Cat Ba Langur.] Cat Ba Langur Conservation Project. Accessed 2008-07-15.
* http://ippl.org/2001-langur.php Retrieved June 30, 2008
*http://floydssecrets.blogspot.com/2007/10/golden-headed-langurvietnam.html
*http://www.stiftung-artenschutz.org/eng/set.html?projects/gold.html