.
This is the third post on our 'Vaalpaarai Trip'. Have a look at the First part
here and the Second part
here!
As I told in the
earlier post, we started very early with Sachin, to have a look at the rare birds and animals at the Briar Tea Estate. It is still green green (!) literally, in my memory! The misty air, the sounds of different types of birds...heard Elephant's sound (trumpet) also from far away! Heavenly feeling! Saw a few
grey horn bill birds which live mostly in this region, we were told. We saw some Elephant stool also on the walking path in between the tea plants. It was still wet and Sachin said that they must have walked on this path just a couple of hours back. He had seen tiger also once, it seems! No, we didn't see...I should be an athlete to run away if I see one! He showed where he saw...it was very close! And now, to the 'Lion-tailed Macaque' monkeys! They are one of the endangered species. They are seen mainly in the Western ghat forest area. Since the forest area is becoming less and less, the animals which live here also are diminishing day by day. Human greediness. They don't fancy humans, it seems...naturally! But here, in India, the population is not alarmingly diminishing because of the positive steps taken by the State Governments, Wiki says.
Wiki also says: It primarily eats indigenous fruits, leaves, buds, insects and small vertebrates in virgin forest.
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| Notice the long snout and the fluffy mane! Click on the pictures pl. |
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| I like the gait with which he is walking on the tree...they live mostly on trees, it seems! |
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| Notice the fluffy tip of the tail! Lion-tailed macaque monkey, this is! |
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| Relaxing! |
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| Itchy?! |
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| Singing?! |
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| Posing! |
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| Playing! |
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| Naughty children! We saw many young ones playing there! They were moving very fast and so it was very difficult to click! |
Sachin, the Naturalist, who took us here said that most of the days, they are not visible to tourists. We were lucky on that day! We had a good darshan of
Hanuman, the Hindu God(s)!
P.S.: I would like to add my friend, Jeevan's comment here:
'there’s this place before entering valparai town, you could notice foresters have made hanging bridges for them to cross the road or prevent hitting from vehicle. It’s really good to see the forest department taking action to preserve these monkeys'. 
