Purple-faced langur: Where It Lives, Map & Facts

Where the purple-faced langur lives – recorded in 1 country, with quick facts from Wikidata and an introduction from Wikipedia.

Scientific name	Semnopithecus vetulus
Group	Monkeys
Status	Endangered (Wikidata, IUCN category label)
Found in	1 country
Continents	Asia
Class	Mammal
Order	Primates
Family	Cercopithecidae

Where does the purple-faced langur live?

Open-licence (CC0 / CC BY) wild records published on GBIF place the purple-faced langur in 1 country or territory across Asia.

Sri Lanka

Countries with at least a handful of records (a minimum share of the species’ records, to leave out vagrants and escapes). Records with coordinates only; captive and fossil records excluded.

Is the purple-faced langur endangered?

The purple-faced langur’s conservation status recorded in Wikidata is “Endangered” (an IUCN Red List category label). Source: Wikidata.

What kind of animal is the purple-faced langur?

The purple-faced langur (Semnopithecus vetulus) is a mammal in the order Primates and the family Cercopithecidae, genus Semnopithecus. (Taxonomy from Wikidata.)

About the purple-faced langur

The purple-faced langur (Semnopithecus vetulus), also known as the purple-faced leaf monkey, is a species of Old World monkey that is endemic to Sri Lanka. The animal is a long-tailed arboreal species, identified by a mostly brown appearance, dark face (with paler lower face) and a very shy nature. The species was once highly prevalent, found in suburban Colombo and the "wet zone" villages (areas with high temperatures and high humidity throughout the year, whilst rain deluges occur during the monsoon seasons), but rapid urbanization has led to a significant decrease in the population level of the monkeys. It had traditionally been classified within the genus Trachypithecus but was moved to the genus Semnopithecus based on DNA evidence indicating that is it more closely related to the gray langurs.

In Sinhala, it is known as ශ්‍රී ලංකා කළු වඳුරා [kalu ʋaⁿd̪uraː] (Sri Lanka black monkey).

Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Purple-faced langur (revision 1356935343), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: lead section excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Quick facts, taxonomy and status: Wikidata Q101500289 (CC0). Countries and pin: GBIF.org occurrence records (CC0 / CC BY 4.0).