Endemic South Asian primates updated on the 2004 IUCN Red List

Abstract

1551 August 2004 This issue is dedicated to langur taxonomy, of a group that was thought of as a simple, large population of a common species of Hanuman/ Common Langur found throughout India. The Conservation Assessment and Management Plan (CAMP) Workshop for South Asian primates was an education of sorts to the primatologists of the region who were unfamiliar with the species/subspecies definitions and distributions as proposed by the IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group (PSG) working document, or the latest publication of Colin Groves' book, Primate Taxonomy. Eventually the group decided to use the expertise of the most experienced primate taxonomist present at the workshop, Douglas Brandon-Jones, who also happened to be the lead author of the above mentioned document, which now has been published in the International Journal of Primatology. The group of South Asian primate field biologists accepted the langur subspecies definitions proposed by PSG and Doug as opposed to the species as defined by Colin Groves. However, since there was much confusion in delimiting boundaries for the various subspecies, it was agreed to rely on Doug's study of all museum specimens during his subsequent visit to BNHS and some field sites in the final assessment. The paper presented in this issue of ZPJ is a result of the extensive study of specimens which Doug has carried out in his taxonomic career. The final report of the status of South Asian primates in the CAMP Report also follows the same taxonomy as this paper for the Indian langurs.