Gray langur groups are extremely variable in both their size and composition, especially between different habitats and between years. In general however, the social system can be both polygynous and multi-male/multi-female. But, there is evidence that multi-male groups are an atypical situation, and merely a transition period following a takeover during the mating season and such groups soon split into single-male and all-male groups. Further, multi-male groups usually turn into single-male troops around the mating season. Group sizes can range from 2 to 90 and sometimes more than a hundred animals, although such agglomerations are rare and usually groups are much smaller.

Because of the variability of the gray langur social systems, mating can be both polygynous and polygamous. In one-male groups, the resident male usually fathers almost all of the offspring in the group, while in multi-male groups the alpha-male sires the most, followed by other group males and even non-group males. Higher-raking females have significantly higher reproductive success than lower-ranking individuals.

Female gray langurs show no external signs of reproductive state, and will mate during all reproductive states including when pregnant. This is perhaps to confuse males about parenting and to prevent infanticide, which occurs often in the species. Nevertheless, field data indicates that males are still able to discern female reproductive condition through some unclear means. Induced by the stress of having a new male in the group, pregnant females will sometimes abort. As mentioned above, infanticide is common in gray langurs.

Source : http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/

This footage is part of the professionally-shot broadcast stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection of HD imagery from South Asia. The Wilderness Films India collection comprises of tens of thousands of hours of high quality broadcast imagery, mostly shot on HDCAM 1080i High Definition, HDV and XDCAM. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadcast format, for use in your production! We are happy to be commissioned to film for you or else provide you with broadcast crewing and production solutions across South Asia. We pride ourselves in bringing the best of India and South Asia to the world... Reach us at rupindang [at] gmail [dot] com and [email protected].