Southern Purple-Faced Langur

The purple-faced langur (Semnopithecus vetulus) is a monkey endemic to Sri Lanka. It is mostly brown, with whitish to gray short trousers, including the rump. Part of the back is covered with whitish fur and the tail has a mixture of black and white. It has a purplish/black face with white sideburns and feet and hands that are a purplish/black color. It is listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List. 

Purple-faced langur. Photo by Judy.

There are four subspecies. We saw the southern purple-faced langur (S. v. vetulus), the nominate subspecies, with a black upper torso (darkest of the subspecies), light brown cap,...

Black upper torso, light brown cap and purplish/black feet and hands. 

a well-defined silvery rump patch that extends to the legs, prominent white whiskers...

Silvery rump patch.

Rump patch that extends to legs and white whiskers. 

...and a whitish tail. 

The whitish tail.

We saw them only once, in a tree in the city of Galle, very close to the walls of the city of Galle where hundreds of people were watching a cricket match taking place below the walls.

Photo by Judy

It likes the closed canopy forests of the mountains and the southwestern part of Sri Lanka known as the wet zone. Deforestation has resulted in 90% of the purple-faced langur's range being populated by people.