Macaque

Characteristics

Morphology

The Pelage of the macaques goes from the beige to the black while passing by all the nuances of the brown one.

At some species, the face is coloured pink or even in red. The macaques have Abajoue S, these are two pockets which open in the mouth. They can quickly store there food for then quietly eating it, far from their competitors. Their eyes, placed frontally, give them a vision in 3 dimensions similar to that of the human being.

The macaques have Callosité S fessières , which are two areas corneas on the croup which enable them to sit down during long lives. It is the position which they prefer to rest or sleep in the trees. The feet and the hands are provided with nails and not with claws, which allow them a arboricolous Locomotion or to evolve/move on the ground indifferently. Like all the Mammalian S, they nurse their small. The female has two udders to nourish small which comes to cling on its chest.

Certain species of macaques pass the majority of their time in the trees. One recognizes them with their long tail which is used to them as Balancier to jump of branch in branch. They are then not very heavy. At these species primarily Arboricolous S, the body mass of the males only spreads out from 5 to 9 kg. Other macaques are more Terrestre S to differing degree. Some almost always live on the ground, others alternate the arboricolous and terrestrial phases. At all events, they often move on the ground and are more massive: the males can then weigh between 10 and 18 kg. Their tail is often shorter and, at some, it measures nothing any more but a few centimetres.

The males are taller than the females and they raise large canines. They are not used to them to eat as at the carnivorous S. It is the result of what Charles Darwin called the sexual Sélection: in the fights which oppose them, the males must be strong to be able to couple themselves with the females and that selects males armed with long canines.

Reproduction

See also: reproductive Strategies in the macaques

The macaques which live more in north live under moderate climates. Their reproduction is Saison nière, the couplings take place with the autumn and the births in spring. For the species which live in the tropical forests, the births take place all the year. When the female is in heat, it encourages the male with the coupling. At several species of macaques, the croup of the female inflates around the zone périnéale for this period of sexual Réceptivité. Moreover, it emits a particular cry, which announces that it is in period ovulatoire.

The females have only the one small all one at two years. The Gestation lasts nearly six months. With the birth, the newborn does not weigh more than 500 G. It often has a particular coloring which distinguishes it from the other members of the group. The other females are attracted by the babies of the others and, if the mother allows it, they can carry it. The young person is separated around six months, but it continues to take refuge against his mother until approximately the one year age.

The young people grow slowly, at 4 years they are teenagers. The females reproduce as soon as they are mature, i.e. about starting from this age, between 4 and 6 years on average. They will be fully adult from an anatomical point of view only around 7 years. The males, as for them, must await 8 or 9 years to reach their adult size. The macaques can live to about thirty years when the conditions are favorable. When they become old, their hair Grison or even bleaches.

Social organization

One of the main features of the macaques is that they have, during the evolution, acquired the capacity to form social groups being able to count until several tens of individuals. In these groups, one finds at the same time adult males and females, sub-adults, the youthful ones and the small ones of the year. The collective life is an adaptive answer to face the mediums with which they are confronted, which allows them, for example, to be more effective in the food Recherche, to better protect themselves from the Prédateur S or to make sure the hand put on resources coveted by other groups of the same species which enter in competition. However, the social life poses cognitive problems incomparably more complex than those posed by the simple physical environment where they live.

Signals of communication

The macaques have vast a repertory gestures, cries and mimicry. They can thus express an emotion, announce their peaceful intentions, encourage a companion to approach, show Soumission or on the contrary to threaten an adversary.

By hearing the cries of a companion, the macaques can recognize its voice and include/understand where it is. But they make even more. When one of them discovers food, the others know if there is much food according to its cries of excitation. And when they hear two companions who dispute, they understand by its cries that which protests is in strong position or although it calls for the aid.

The macaques are expressed by many mimicry. What counts before very including/understanding their expressions, in fact the eyes and the mouth can be more or less open. The coloring of the eyelids underlines sometimes the expression. It is also necessary to pay attention to the movements of the head and the ears, and of course with the cries which often accompany them.

Certain signals are not the same ones in all the species of macaques. At the Macaque of Tonkean, the Mâle dominating pushes a special cry. At the same species, mimicry with opening of the teeth is a mimicry which announces the peaceful intentions of that which emits it, it is the equivalent of a smile. At the Macaque crabier and the Rhesus monkey, same mimicry is on the contrary a signal of tender by which dominated recognizes that it is weaker.

Social relations

The life in group implies at the same time co-operation and competition. To live together, it is necessary to be able to establish relations with his companions, to agree on the way to take, to take part in the breeding young people or to come using a companion in danger. But when two members of the group wish same food or the same companion, that causes conflicts and each one must know to be defended and negotiate.

The members of a group must have good relationships. They toilettent the ones regularly the others to remain clean and eliminate the parasites, but also to maintain their social relations. One goes toiletter a companion because it is a relative, or because it is about a powerful ally, or to obtain a favor, to have the permission to touch a baby for example. In the Berber macaque, the large males use even the small ones to approach and calm down from/to each other. In all the macaques, the play is frequent and it can imply the adults.

When an argument occurs, one shouts much but one generally avoids biting oneself. The mutual aids are frequent: two companions join to attack of it a third, the arguments quickly become rather complicated. A tender or an appeasing generally finishes the conflict. It is important to maintain the social relations in spite of the dissensions and it is not rare that the adversaries are reconciled by a pressure or a grooming. In certain species, an individual can stop the argument by alleviating the attacker.

So that the behavior of each one is foreseeable, the macaques follow rules which respect the power struggles, they are what is called the relations of predominance-subordination. One recognizes the dominant individuals with their assured step, they have the priority in the situations of competition, for example when it is a question of feeding. When one dominated meets dominating, it deviates in front of him and shown tender to avoid an aggression.

Attention, it is not enough to be strongest to be dominating. It is also necessary to have allies ready to support you in the arguments. The girl of a dominant female will be also dominant, it comes just after her mother. And a large male which does not have allies will remain very low in the hierarchy. The family ties are important in the life of the macaques. As they do not know their father, it is the relationship by the mother who counts. One helps oneself between mothers, girls, wire, sisters and brothers, grandmothers and grandchildren, one toilet often, one forms coalitions, the result is the training of powerful clans of related individuals. It there of the dominant clans and the dominated clans. The row of predominance of an individual depends on his clan of birth, it is better to be quite born…

Lifestyle

The females remain all their life in their native group. The destiny of the males is quite different. The majority of them leave their group of origin towards four to seven years, breaking all their family ties. It is thought that they act thus to meet other females and to couple itself with them. Indeed, out of sexual matter one prefers the foreigner with the familiar one, it is necessary to avoid reproducing with his/her brother or his sister.

The males which emigrate can remain alone some time, but the solitary life is dangerous. Nobody is there to help you and the predatory ones grind… Often the young males join to form small groups of single people who travel together. When they see females in heats in a group, they try to attract them towards them. All the business is to couple itself without the dominant males of the group not realizing there. Fortunately for the young foreigners, the trees are numerous in the forest and the often thick vegetation, the large males cannot all supervise. But it comes a time when the male decides to enter a group and to settle there. It can choose between two strategies. It can defy the male dominating of the group and to oblige it to subject itself, it is a dangerous tactic because the engagements can involve serious wounds. Only the males between ten and fifteen years choose this solution because they are strongest. The younger males must employ another strategy. It is necessary for them to be careful and enter the bottom of the hierarchy. They observe and learn how to recognize the relations who link the various members of the group, they are made allies by supporting one or the other in the conflicts. With the years, they gain in force and in experiment, they become dominant males.

In the moderated areas, all the females come in heat at the same time at the season from reproduction. No male can monopolize all the females and those can make choices, refuse certain males and prefer others of them. Consequently, even the dominated males can reproduce, on the condition of remaining discrete…

We point out that the females prefer the nonfamiliar males, i.e. those which they do not know. Then, for what has it thus been used to be a male dominating, installed in a group for several years? Isn't it worth better to emigrate and leave to the conquest unknown females? It is precisely what the males do. A majority of them will leave again after a few last years in a group, they will know a new solitary period, will enter a new group… Thus a male can change group several times in its life.

Cognitive capacities of the macaques

Social cognition

To adapt quickly to a situation, the animal must be able to learn, memorize and find a solution with the problems which arise for him. It is thought that the life groups request with the animals of it to be particularly intelligent: it is necessary to know to negotiate, to be made allies, to envisage what the companions or the adversaries will make. At the time of a conflict, a macaque is able at the same time to threaten its adversary and to address friendly signals to an ally to require its support of him. It knows that it is necessary to ask the assistance of most powerful and, after an argument, it can decide to go to be reconciled with a relative of the adversary rather than with the adversary itself. That requires of him to know the relations which exist between his/her companions: who is more dominating of both or who is the ally of which.

The macaques are capable of great performances, to use tools or to exchange information, for example. But there are also things which they cannot make, like guessing the intentions of a companion or recognizing themselves in a mirror. Why? Because they would have to understand that each one of us has a spirit and that they of it are not able. Consequently, it is not possible for them to know the goals of another or simply to know that somebody is ignorant or although it knows something. However, this does not prevent the macaques from being very gifted to envisage what their companions will do. They learn that certain behaviors occur in certain situations, and they thus know what will occur even if they do not include/understand well why.

Inherited behaviors and traditions

The macaques have traditions. Some their behaviors can be transmitted of one generation to the other. About 1950, researchers distributed sweet potatoes to the macaques on the beach of the Japanese small island of Koshima. One day, Imo, a small female had the idea to go to wash its potato in water. In the months which followed, several of his/her companions made in the same way. A few years later, almost all the members of the group were able to wash their food. Only those which had more than ten years at the time of discovered ever learned, probably because they did not look at much young people. Thereafter, the tradition was transmitted of the mother to small: the small ones learn while following their mother in water and by collecting the pieces which it makes fall.

Other traditions appeared in the Japan macaques. In Koshima, the macaques learned how to launch corn handles in the sea to separate the grains from sand. Later, they started to eat fish failed on the beach, which they had never done before. In another place, the technique used to remove eggs of lice stuck to the hairs of the fur differs from a clan to another. And in another troop, it is a new handset which was spread. In the space of a few years, all the young people started to play with stones: they gather them, rub them, do them claquer one against the other, they transport them and sometimes dispute them. If the washing of potatos or corn is quite useful, one cannot say that the play with the stones is completely necessary. But if the macaques can learn from/to each other, that is enough so that techniques are transmitted.

In a group of macaques of Java, the use of a stick to reach a fruit appeared and was transmitted to several individuals. In a group of macaques of Tonkean, several young males learned how to draw up branches against the fence of their park. But when one wondered by which means a macaque learns, one had some surprises. To imitate the other and to copy its gestures, its goals should be included/understood: how to make if one cannot recognize his intentions? As opposed to what one believed, the monkeys do not imitate… They learn, but by means simpler than the imitation. They notice that a companion is interested in something, or they understand that an object has importance, thus they are influenced by their companion. But they must then find only the solution of the problem. It is difficult and if they succeed, it is after many tests and errors.

Environment

Habitat and food

Each group lives on a field of a few square kilometers. The macaques are active the day and they sleep the night in the trees. They feel more with the shelter in the heights. They must be protected from predatory like the leopards and the pythons, but the greatest danger comes from the men and their dogs…

The macaques spend several hours per day to seek their food: fruits, seeds, buds and sheets, but also of the insects, the flowers and some mushrooms. What prefers the macaques they are the fruits, they are especially frugivorous in the tropical countries. But the fruits are less abundant in the moderated areas, and the seeds and the sheets then form the essence of their food mode. In the north of Japan, the macaques do not find any more large-thing to be eaten during the winter. At this season, they must be satisfied with brushwood and bark with the trees.

The macaques are adaptable animals, one sees them in all kinds of habitats: moderate plains or mountains, tropical forests or, semi-desert marshes or areas. One meets sometimes two species different of macaques in the same forests. It is the case for example macaque nemestrina and macaque of Java which both live Indonesia.

Cohabitation with the Man

In certain countries, the macaques became a tourist attraction. One comes to see them and one gives them to eat. As they are too well nourished, they form great groups which can exceed the hundred individuals.

In much of places, captive macaques are still used as pets. But a young person who grows far from his does not know how to behave. He becomes apprehensive or aggressive, and he can live never again with other macaques.

Certain species are able to live near the human beings, their fields and their dwellings. They come in the temples to eat the offerings which people bring to their gods. One finds them at the edge of the roads and even in the cities.

Urgency of protection

The majority of the macaques cannot do without the forests where they live. The development of the human activities threatens their survival. Everywhere, the forest is burned and one replaces it by well ordered cultures, rice plantations and plantations, which do not make it possible the macaques to live.

When they do not have anything any more to eat, the macaques come to plunder the cultures and the men drive out some. In much of country, the men continue to kill the monkeys like game. In the north of the island of Sulawesi, in Indonesia, one eats the macaque with peak with Christmas.

In the mountains of the Average Atlas in Morocco, the sheep and the goats will feed in the forests. In winter, the shepherds nourish them with the branches of the trees and those die slowly. What will it remain with the Berber macaques?

People need to cultivate the ground to nourish their children. And the macaques need the forest to live. What is necessary to make? There remain only a few thousands of macaques silenus and of macaques Moors on planet, they are not more numerous than the population of a human village. It will be necessary well to leave a place to the macaques if we want that they continue to exist.

List species of macaques

The Macaca account to date 21 S and of many subspecies. The statute of species or subspecies is often subject to deposit in the macaques, a fortiori since they all are interféconds (see Spéciation).

Group sylvanus-silenus

Macaca brunnescens (Matschie 1901). - Macaque of Buton-Muna
Macaca hecki (Matschie 1901). - Macaque of Heck
Macaca will maura (Schinz, 1825). - Macaque Moor
Macaca nemestrina (Linnaeus, 1766). - Macaque with tail of pig
Macaca will nigra (Desmarest, 1822). - Macaque with peak or negro macaque
Macaca nigrescens (Temminck, 1849). - Macaque of Gorontalo
Macaca ochreata (Ogilby, 1841). - Macaque boot
Macaca pagensis (Miller, 1903). - Macaque of Mentawaï
Macaca silenus (Linnaeus, 1758). - Macaque with tail of lion or wanderoo
Macaca sylvanus (Linnaeus, 1758). - Berber Macaque or nest egg
Macaca tonkeana (Meyer, 1899). - Macaque of Tonkean

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