Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, founder of Singapore, British general in the Napoleonic Wars, author of History of Java, and first president of the London Zoological Society, accomplished all this before he died at age 44. He also found time to collect and describe numerous plants & animals, including Trachypithecus cristatus, aka Silvered Leaf Monkey, Silvery Lutung, or Silvery Langur. In the 19th Century, it was also known as the Crested Monkey, Hoary Monkey, or Chingkau.

While the adults are black, and fringed with “silver,” the young are orange-gold.

You can see them at the Bronx Zoo’s Jungle World exhibit.

The close-up of the monkey’s hand shows its nails (not claws) and even some of its fingerprints, both characteristic features of primates.

• Bronx Zoo,
• leaf monkeys,
• primates,
• zoos