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macaque

 
Dictionary: ma·caque   (mə-kăk', -käk') pronunciation
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n.
Any of several short-tailed monkeys of the genus Macaca of southeast Asia, Japan, Gibraltar, and northern Africa.

[French, from Portuguese macaco. See macaco.]


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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: macaque
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Any of about 12 primarily Asian species of omnivorous, diurnal monkeys (genus Macaca) with cheek pouches for carrying food. Some species have long tails, some have short tails, and some have none. Males are 16 – 28 in. (41 – 70 cm) long (excluding the tail) and weigh 12 – 40 lb (5.5 – 18 kg). Troops live in mountains and lowlands and along shores. The rhesus monkey (M. mulatta) has been important to medical and psychological research. Malays train pig-tailed macaques (M. nemestrina) to pick coconuts. See also Barbary ape; bonnet monkey; Celebes black ape.

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Columbia Encyclopedia: macaque
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macaque (məkäk'), name for Old World monkeys of the genus Macaca, related to mangabeys, mandrills, and baboons. All but one of the 19 species are found in Asia from Afghanistan to Japan, the Philippines, and Borneo. Macaques can be slight, with very long tails, or stocky, with short limbs and a short tail or, in a few species, no tail. They are highly intelligent and display a great variety of calls and facial expressions. A typical macaque is the rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) of S Asia. It is yellowish brown with a pale, naked face and a tail about half as long as the body. A large male may reach a body length of 2 ft (60 cm). Rhesus monkeys live in social groups of 25-60 individuals in forests and on rocky hillsides, ranging to high altitudes. Omnivorous feeders, they often raid cultivated fields and gardens. The rhesus monkey has been widely used in medical and other scientific experiments; the Rh blood factor, found in humans as well as monkeys, is named for it. The stump-tailed macaque (M. arctaides) is a nearly tailless, very hairy macaque with a naked pink face, found at high altitudes in SE Asia. One of its close relatives the Japanese macaque (M. fuscata) is the northernmost primate other than man. Its social organization has been extensively studied, and it has been found that there are culturally transmitted behavioral differences among different troops. The single non-Asian macaque is the so-called Barbary ape (M. sylvanus), a large, tailless species of NW Africa, with one colony on the Rock of Gibraltar; it is the only nonhuman primate found in Europe. Macaques are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Primates, family Cercopithecidae.

Veterinary Dictionary: macaque
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Members of the genus Macaca, of the family Cercopithecoidae, the Old World monkeys. There are a large number of species including the rhesus and bonnet monkeys and the Barbary ape. They are thick-set monkeys, which are able to withstand the cold and often live above the snowline. Includes rhesus monkey (M. mulatta), Celebes macaque (Cynopethicus niger), pig-tailed macaque (M. nemestrina), Barbary ape (M. inua), M. arctoides, M. fascicularis, M. nigra, M. silensus.

Wikipedia: Macaque
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Macaques[1]
Crab-eating Macaque (Macaca fascicularis)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Family: Cercopithecidae
Subfamily: Cercopithecinae
Genus: Macaca
Lacepede, 1799
Type species
Simia inuus
Linnaeus, 1758 = Simia sylvanus Linnaeus, 1758
Species

See text.
Bonnet Macaque (Macaca radiata) seen in Nelliampathi mountains in Kerala, south India
Stump-tailed Macaque (Macaca arctoides)
Japanese Macaque (Macaca fuscata)
Pig-tailed Macaque (Macaca nemestrina)

The macaques (pronounced /məˈkæk/) constitute a genus (Macaca, /məˈkækə/) of Old World monkeys of the subfamily Cercopithecinae.

Aside from humans (genus Homo), the macaques are the most widespread primate genus, ranging from northern Africa to Japan. Twenty-two macaque species are currently recognised, and they include some of the monkeys best known to non-zoologists, such as the Rhesus Macaque (as the Rhesus Monkey), Macaca mulatta, and the Barbary Macaque (as the Barbary Ape), M. sylvanus, a colony of which lives on the Rock of Gibraltar. Although several species lack tails, and their common names therefore refer to them as apes, these are true monkeys, with no greater relationship to the true apes than any other Old World monkeys.

Several species of macaque are used extensively in animal testing.

In the late 1990s it was discovered that nearly all (about 90%)[citation needed] pet and captive macaques are carriers of the herpes B virus. This virus is harmless to macaques, but infections of humans, whilst rare, are potentially fatal. A 2005 University of Toronto study showed that urban performing macaques also carried simian foamy virus, suggesting they could be involved in the species-to-species jump of similar retroviruses to humans.[2]

Macaques also have a very intricate social structure and hierarchy. If a macaque who is lower level in the social chain has eaten berries and there is none left for the higher level macaque, then the one higher in status can, within this social organization, remove the berries from the other monkey's mouth. [3]

Contents

Species list

Genus Macaca

Prehistoric (fossil) species:

  • Macaca anderssoni Schlosser, 1924
  • Macaca jiangchuanensis Pan et al.[verification needed], 1992
  • Macaca libyca Stromer, 1920
  • Macaca majori Schaub & Azzaroli in Comaschi Caria, 1969 (sometimes included in M. sylvanus)

References

  1. ^ Groves, C. (2005). Wilson, D. E., & Reeder, D. M.. ed. Mammal Species of the World (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 161-165. ISBN 0-801-88221-4. http://www.bucknell.edu/msw3. 
  2. ^ University of Toronto - News@UofT - Performing monkeys in Asia carry viruses that could jump species to humans (Dec 8/05)
  3. ^ "The Life of Mammals" Hosted by David Attenborough, 2003 British Broadcasting Corporation. BBC Video

See also

External links

Search Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Macaca
Search Wikispecies Wikispecies has information related to: Macaque

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.  Read more
Veterinary Dictionary. Saunders Comprehensive Veterinary Dictionary 3rd Edition. Copyright © 2007 by D.C. Blood, V.P. Studdert and C.C. Gay, Elsevier. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Macaque".  Read more