064 Keeping Watch
Hey Langur, the deer below eat what you drop from the tree, and when you see the tiger first, your warning call saves them too.
Who are we keeping watch for?
Who are you keeping watch for?
In a forest clearing in central India, spotted deer graze beneath a tall tree. Above them, grey langurs feed on leaves and fruit.
Suddenly, a langur barks a sharp alarm. Every deer lifts its head and runs.
What really happens
Spotted deer, or chital, often feed under trees where langurs are eating, picking up leaves and fruit the monkeys drop.
From high up, langurs often spot tigers and leopards first. Their alarm calls warn the deer too. Each species watches out for the other.
How we know: Newton, studying Kanha National Park in the 1980s, described this langur and chital partnership.
The turn
We usually watch out for ourselves and our own.
The langur's warning carries further than its own troop.
Three takeaways
- Your warning can save more than your own.
- Share what you see from your height.
- Two kinds of eyes are better than one.
Call out from the treetop.
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.