White-cheeked macaque

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White-cheeked macaque
female

female

Systematics
Superfamily : Tailed Old World Monkey (Cercopithecoidea)
Family : Vervet monkey relatives (Cercopithecidae)
Subfamily : Cheekbones monkey (Cercopithecinae)
Tribe : Baboons (Papionini)
Genre : Macaque ( macaca )
Type : White-cheeked macaque
Scientific name
Macaca leucogenys
Li , Zhao & Fan , 2015

The white-cheeked macaque ( Macaca leucogenys ) is a macaque species that was first described in 2015 , which occurs in the Mêdog district in southeast Tibet and possibly also in neighboring Indian areas. Due to ethical concerns in relation to the killing of wild primates, the type specimens were not killed in order to store them in museums, but only photographed directly or with the help of camera traps.

description

The white-cheeked macaque is stocky and has a relatively short tail. Males are larger than females. The species can be distinguished from the other macaque species found in southeastern Tibet and adjacent northeastern India by its fur and penile morphology . The dorsal fur of adults is uniformly light, dark or chocolate brown, the fur on the stomach and chest is lighter. Young animals have a dark to chocolate brown back fur. Characteristic and eponymous ( Greek  λευκός leukos "white", γένυς genys "jaw, cheek") is a light to white beard, which begins with the ears, covers them in adults, and gives the face a round shape. As with the Arunachalmakak ( M. munzala ), a narrow dark strip runs from the outer corner of the eye to the ear. The bare skin on the mouth is dark, the area around the eyes light pink. The hair on the neck is long and thick. The young animals still lack the white beard and goatee. Their facial hair is darker than that of adults, the bare facial skin reddish to light. The tail is short, shorter than that of the Assam macaque ( M. assamensis pelops ), but longer than that of the Tibetan macaque ( M. thibetana ). The mean ratio of tail length to head-to-body length is 0.43 for males and 0.42 for females. The tail is almost hairless, tapers towards the end and in some specimens (40 of 91) the tail end is directed towards the ground. No indentation is visible between the glans and penis shaft (based on three photos of only one male) and the glans is round, while that of the other macaques from the sinica group is arrow-shaped. The scrotum is dark or covered with dark hair.

habitat

The white-cheeked macaque lives in groups with several males and females and occurs from tropical mountain forests at altitudes of 1400 meters to evergreen forests, mainly formed from large-leaved deciduous trees, at altitudes of 2700 meters. When people are present, the adult monkeys give high-pitched, screeching alarm calls and flee into the trees. The alarm calls are different from those that Assam macaques emit.

Southeastern Tibet is rich in endemic flora and fauna. In recent years the Burmese snub-nosed monkey ( Rhinopithecus strykeri ) and Hoolock hoolock mishmiensis , a subspecies of the Western white-browed gibbon , have been described.

literature

  • Cheng Li, Chao Zhao & Peng-Fei Fan (2015): White-cheeked Macaque (Macaca leucogenys): A New Macaque Species from Modog, southeastern Tibet. American Journal of Primatology, 2015 Wiley Periodicals, DOI: 10.1002 / ajp.22394 .

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