Genus: Macaca – The Barbary Macaque
The Barbary Macaque (Macaca sylvanus) is found in the Atlas Mountains of Algeria and Morocco and possibly in Gibraltar. The Barbary Macaque Monkey is one of the best-known Old World monkey species. They live freely in Europe. Although referred to as the Barbary Ape, it is a true monkey.
The Barbary Macaque is yellowish-brown to grey with lighter undersides. The Barbary Macaque grows to a maximum size of 75 centimetres (30 inches) and weighs 13 kilograms (29 pounds). Their faces are a dark pink color and their tails are functionless. The Barbary Macaques front limbs are longer than its hind limbs. Females are somewhat smaller than males. They inhabit forests of cedar, pine and oak.
The Barbary Macaque is a diurnal monkey, dividing its time more or less equally between arboreal and terrestrial territory. Mostly herbivorous, they feed on leaves, roots and fruit, however, they will also eat insects. By day, the Barbary Macaque patrols a territory which may cover several square kilometres where it peacefully co-exists with other primate species. They share water holes without quarrel. The Barbary Macaque moves about energetically on all fours, occasionally rising on its hind limbs to survey for threats.
The Barbary Macaque is a gregarious monkey, forming mixed groups of several females and males. Troops consist of 10 to 30 individuals with its hierarchy determined by the lead female. Unlike other macaques, the males participate in rearing the young, much time is spent playing and grooming with them. In this way, a strong social bond is formed between a male and his young, both the males own and those of others in the troop. This may be a result of selectiveness on the part of the females, who seem to prefer highly parental males.
Genus: Macaca – The Bonnet Macaque
The Bonnet Macaque (Macaca radiata) is a macaque that resides in India. The Bonnet Macaque is a diurnal monkey which means it is mostly active during the daytime. Bonnet Macaques are around 35 – 60 centimetres long plus a tail of 35 – 68 centimetres. Male Bonnet Macaques weigh 5.5 to 9 kilograms and females 3.5 to 4.5 kilograms.
The Bonnet Macaque Monkey has a life span of more than 30 years. The Bonnet Macaque is an omnivore and feeds on fruits, nuts, seeds, flowers, invertebrates and cereals. There are two subspecies of Bonnet Macaques which have been identified: Macaca radiata radiata and Macaca radiata diluta.
Genus: Macaca – The Booted Macaque
The Booted Macaque (Macaca ochreata) is a macaque of the Sulawesi island, Indonesia. The Booted Macaque Monkey is diurnal (active during the daytime) and spends most of the day in the trees. They can grow to a length of 50 – 59 centimetres long plus a tail of 35 – 40 centimetres.
The Booted Macaque is an omnivore and feeds on figs, buds, invertebrates and cereals. There are two subspecies of the Booted Macaque that are recognized: Macaca ochreata ochreata and Muna-Buton Macaque, Macaca ochreata brunnescens.
Genus: Macaca – The Crab-eating Macaque
The Crab-eating Macaque (Macaca fascicularis) is a primarily arboreal macaque native to Southeast Asia. It is also called the Cynomolgus Monkey and the Long-tailed Macaque. The Crab-eating Macaque is found in a wide variety of habitats, including primary lowland rainforests, disturbed and secondary rainforests and riverside and coastal forests of nipa palm and mangrove.
The Crab-eating Macaque Monkey also easily adjusts to human settlements and are considered sacred at some Hindu temples and on some small islands.
The native range of the Crab-eating Macaque includes most of mainland Southeast Asia, including the Malay Archipelago islands of Sumatra, Java and Borneo, the islands of the Philippines and the Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal. Although this monkey is often referred to as the Crab-eating Macaque, its diet is by no means limited to crabs. Other food items are in fact far more common. They are an opportunistic feeding omnivore, meaning they can and will eat a wide variety of animals, plants and other materials, it also eats leaves, flowers, roots and bark. It also preys on bird chicks and nesting female birds, lizards, frogs, fishes and bird eggs.
The Crab-eating Macaque is a very social animal that lives in groups anywhere from 5 – 60 individuals. These groups are multi-male groups, normally containing 2 – 5 males and 2 – 3 times as many females. Their groups are female orientated. They will remain in a a group up to 4 or 5 years and will emigrate several times throughout their life. Crab-eating Macaques have a strict dominance hierarchy. Adult males rank higher than females.
Female Crab-eating Macaques have a gestation period of 167 – 193 days, the female gives birth to one young. The infants weight at birth is approximately 350 grams. Infants are born with black fur and this fur will begin to turn to a yellow-green, grey-green, or reddish-brown shade after about 3 months. Young juveniles stay with the mother and relatives playing together forming bonds that may help them when they emigrate from their natal group. Males that emigrate with a partner seem to be more successful than those that move off alone.
Depending on sub-species, the body length of the adult monkey is 38 – 55 centimetres with comparably short arms and legs. The tail is longer than the body, typically 40 – 65 centimetres. Males are considerably larger than females, weighing 5 – 9 kilograms compared to the 3 – 6 kilograms of female individuals.
Genus: Macaca – The Celebes Crested Macaque
The Celebes Crested Macaque (Macaca nigra) is also known as the Crested Black Macaque, Sulawesi Crested Macaque, or the Black ‘Ape’. The Celebes Crested Macaque lives in the northeast of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi (Celebes) as well as on smaller neighbouring islands.
The Celebes Crested Macaques skin and hairless face is, with the exception of some white hair in the shoulder range, entirely black. The Celebes Crested Macaque Monkey has a long muzzle with high cheeks and the long hair tuft, or crest, at the top side of the head. Their tail is only 2 centimetres of stub. With a total body length of 45 to 60 centimetres and a weight of 7 to 10 kilograms, it is one of the smaller macaque species. The Celebes Crested Macaque is a diurnal rainforest dweller.
The Celebes Crested Macaque is primarily terrestrial, spending more than 60% of its day on the ground foraging for food and socializing, while sleeping and searching for food in the trees. It lives in groups of 5 to 25 individuals. Smaller groups have only a single male, while larger groups have up to 4 males. The females, however, always outnumber the males by about 4 to 1. Since young males must leave their birth group upon maturity, they sometimes form bachelor groups before they look for an existing mixed group. Communication consists of various sounds and gestures.
The Celebes Crested Macaque is an omnivore, 70% of its diet consists of fruits, however, it also consumes leaves, buds, seeds, fungus, birds and bird eggs, insects (such as caterpillars) and the occasional small lizard or frog.
Female gestation period is 174 days and the birth of a single young happens in the spring when food is more plentiful. Infant monkeys are nursed approximately for one year and become fully mature in 3 to 4 years, females somewhat sooner than males.
The Celebes Crested Macaques life span is approximately 20 years. The total population of the macaque on Sulawesi is estimated at 4,000 – 6,000, while a booming population of up to 100,000 monkeys are found on Bacan, an island in Indonesia.
Genus: Macaca – The Lion-tailed Macaque
The Lion-tailed Macaque (Macaca silenus) is an Old World monkey that lives only in the Western Ghats of South India. The skin of the Lion-tailed Macaque is dark-brown or black and its most outstanding characteristic is the silver-white mane which surrounds the head from the cheeks down to its chin, which gives this monkey its German name of Beard Ape.
The Lion-tailed Macaque Monkeys hairless face is black in color. The Lion-tailed Macaque Monkey has a head-to-tail length of 45 to 60 centimetres and a weight of 3 to 10 kilograms and is one of the smaller macaques. Their tail is medium length and measures around 25 centimetres and has a black tuft at the end, similar to a lions tail.
The Lion-tailed Macaque is a diurnal rainforest dweller. They are good climbers and spend most of their life in the trees. Unlike other macaques, it avoids humans. In group behaviour, it is much like other macaques as it lives in hierarchical groups of usually 10 to 20 individuals, which consist of some males and many females. It is a territorial animal, defending its area first with loud cries towards the invading troops.
The Lion-tailed Macaque primarily eats fruits, however, it also eats leaves, buds, insects and small vertebrates.
Female gestation is approximately 6 months. The young are nursed for one year. Sexual maturity is reached at 4 years for females, 6 years for males. The Lion-tailed Macaques life span in the wild is approximately 20 years, while in captivity up to 30 years.
The Lion-tailed Macaque ranks among the rarest and most threatened primates. According to estimations of the IUCN, only approximately 2,500 of these monkeys live scattered over several areas in southwest India. The destruction of their habitat and the fact that they avoid human proximity, has led to the drastic decrease of their population. Many zoos take part in breeding programs which help to secure the survival of this species.
Genus: Macaca – The Japanese Macaque
The Japanese Macaque (Macaca fuscata), is also known as the Snow Monkey. It is a terrestrial Old World monkey species native to northern Japan although a troop has been identified living in Texas since 1972. The Japanese Macaque Monkey is the most northern-living non-human primate. Individuals have brown-grey fur, a red face, hands and bottom and a short tail.
There are two subspecies of the Japanese Macaque Monkey, Macaca fuscata fuscata and Yakushima Macaque, Macaca fuscata yakui.
The Japanese Macaque is diurnal and spends most of its time in forests. It lives in a variety of forest-types, including subtropical to subalpine, deciduous, broadleaf and evergreen forests, below 1500 metres.
The Japanese Macaque feeds on seeds, roots, buds, fruit, invertebrates, berries, leaves, birds eggs, fungi, bark and cereals.
The Japanese Macaque has a body length ranging from 79 to 95 centimetres, with a tail length of approximately 10 centimetres. Males weigh from 10 to 14 kilograms, females, around 5.5 kilograms. The Japanese Macaque can survive winter temperatures below -15 °C (5° F) and is perhaps most famous for the amount of time it spends relaxing in naturally heated volcanic hot springs.
The Japanese Macaque lives in troops 20 – 100 individuals consisting of many females and several males. On average, females outnumber males by 3 to 1.
The females have a rigid hierarchy with infants inheriting their mother’s rank. Female gestation period is 173 days, females bear only one young, which weighs about 500 grams at birth. The Japanese Macaque has an average life span of 30 years. The Japanese Macaque is very smart. It is the only animal other than humans and raccoons that is known to wash its food before eating it.
The Japanese Macaque can develop different accents, like humans. It was found that macaques in areas separated by only a couple hundred miles can have very different pitches in their calls, their form of communication. The Japanese Macaque is classified as Data Deficient by the 2000 IUCN Red List.
Genus: Macaca – The Moor Macaque
The Moor Macaque (Macaca maura) is an macaque with brown/black body fur with a pale rump patch and pink bare skin on the rump. It is about 50 – 58.5 centimetres in length. The Moor Macaque Monkey eats figs, bamboo seeds, buds, sprouts, invertebrates and cereals in tropical rainforests.
The Moor Macaque is sometimes called dog-ape because of its dog-like muzzles, although they are no more closely related to apes than any other Old World monkey. The Moor Macaque inhabits only Sulawesi (Indonesia).
The Moor Macaque is endangered mostly due to habitat loss from an expanding human population and deforestation to increase agricultural land area. It is estimated that only 1000 Moor Macaques are left in Sulawesi. Because several Sulawesi macaque species are endangered, information on ecology and behaviour is essential and conservation management plans are being designed.
Genus: Macaca – The Rhesus Macaque
The Rhesus Macaque (Macaca mulatta), often called the Rhesus Monkey, is one of the best known species of Old World monkeys. It is a typical macaque, common throughout Afghanistan to northern India and southern China.
Adult males measure approximately 53 centimetres on average and weigh an average of 7.7 kilograms. Females are smaller, averaging 47 centimetres in length and 5.3 kilograms in weight. Rhesus Macaque Monkeys are brown or grey in color and have pink faces which are typically bereft of fur. Rhesus Macaques tails are of medium length and average between 20 and 22 centimetres.
Rhesus Macaques have a life span of about 25 years. Inhabiting arid, open areas, the Rhesus Macaque may be found in grasslands, woodlands and in mountainous regions up to 2,500 metres in elevation. Rhesus Macaques are good swimmers and they enjoy this activity. The Rhesus Macaque is noted for its tendency to move from rural to urban areas, coming to rely on handouts or refuse from humans.
A diurnal animal, the Rhesus Macaque is both arboreal and terrestrial. The Rhesus Macaque is an omnivore and feeds on leaves and pine needles, roots and the occasional insect or small animal. They have specialized pouch-like cheeks, allowing them to temporarily store their food. The gathered morsels are eaten sometime later, in safe surroundings. Troops may contain up to 180 individuals, however 20 is normally the average. Females may outnumber the males by a ratio of 4 to 1.
The social hierarchy is also matriarchal, rank dependent on lineage to the lead female. Care of young and territory defence duties are shared amongst the troop. Monkeys that discover food will normally advertise the fact by specific calls.
The females cycle is similar to humans with menstrual cycles of around 28 days. Mating is not confined to a specific season. Gestation may last from 135 – 194 days. Females are mature by the age of 3 years and males at 4 years. The life span of a rhesus monkey in captivity is approximately 15 – 20 years for males and 20 – 25 years for females. These monkeys rarely live beyond 15 years of age in the wild.
Genus: Macaca – The Tibetan Macaque
The Tibetan Macaque (Macaca thibetana), also known as Milne-Edwards’ Macaque, is found in China, Tibet and Vietnam. The Tibetan Macaque lives in subtropical forests either mixed deciduous or evergreen at altitude that range from 800 to 2000 metres.
The Tibetan Macaque Monkey has a long dense brown fur with whiskers but a hairless face. The infants have silver and black fur that changes to its adult color at the age of 2 years.
The Tibetan Macaques diet consists mostly of fruit, however, it will also consume seeds, leaves, berries and flowers as well as invertebrates. The Tibetan Macaque is a gregarious animal and lives in multi-male and multi-female groups.
The life span of the Tibetan Macaque is over 20 years. There are four recognized subspecies of this macaque, Macaca thibetana thibetana, Macaca thibetana esau, Macaca thibetana guiahouensis and Macaca thibetana huangshanensis.
Genus: Macaca – The Toque Macaque
The Toque Macaque (Macaca sinica) is a reddish-brown colored Old World monkey endemic to Sri Lanka. The Toque Macaque Monkey lives in troops which contain up to 20 individuals. This species of monkey is a full species, however, it has developed into three subspecies.
Troops of the Toque Macaque are a common sight in The Cultural Triangle, where many ancient temples are situated, hence earning them the nick name of ‘Temple Monkey’. The other two subspecies of Toque Macaque that have been described are Dryzone Toque Macaque (Macaca sinica sinica) and Wetzone Toque Macaque (Macaca sinica aurifrons).
