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Macaca mulattarhesus monkey

By Joshua Seinfeld

Ge­o­graphic Range

Pop­u­la­tions of rhe­sus mon­keys (Macaca mu­latta) are most com­monly found in west­ern Afghanistan, through India to north­ern Thai­land. This species was abun­dant his­tor­i­cally in south­ern China and Tibet, but hu­mans have caused dras­tic de­cline of pop­u­la­tions in these areas over the last sixty years. Be­cause M. mu­latta is often used for re­search, today pop­u­la­tions are kept in cap­tiv­ity world wide.

(Nowak, 1991; Parker, 1990; Wil­son and Reeder, 1993)

Habi­tat

Macaca mu­latta lives in a wide range of habi­tats, and shows a great deal of adapt­abil­ity. Some pop­u­la­tions live in flat­lands, while oth­ers, in north­ern India and Pak­istan, live in the Hi­malayas at el­e­va­tions up to 3,000 m. These pri­mates are able to acli­mate to a va­ri­ety of cli­matic ex­tremes, from the hot, dry tem­per­a­tures found in deserts, to cold win­ter tem­per­a­tures which fall to well below the freez­ing point.

In ad­di­tion to liv­ing in the wilder­ness, some pop­u­la­tions of M. mu­latta have be­come ac­cus­tomed to liv­ing along­side hu­mans. Oc­ca­sion­ally, small groups can be found liv­ing in the densely pop­u­lated urban areas of north­ern India. Groups of rhe­sus mon­keys that be­come used to liv­ing in areas oc­cu­pied by peo­ple usu­ally search out other hu­man-pop­u­lated areas if peo­ple at­tempt to re­lo­cate them away from civ­i­liza­tion.

(Nowak, 1991; Parker, 1990)

  • Range elevation
    3,000 (high) m
    ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

These small­ish mon­keys have griz­zled-brown fur dor­sally, with the fur on the ven­trum being slightly lighter in color. The hair is short on the head. The face and but­tocks of adults are red.

Length varies in this species, rang­ing be­tween 45 and 64 cm. The tail adds an ad­di­tional 19 to 32 cm to the total length. Males are some­what heav­ier than fe­males, weigh­ing be­tween 6.5 and 12 kg. Fe­males weigh a mere 5.5 kg on av­er­age. (BBC, 2005)

  • Sexual Dimorphism
  • male larger
  • Range mass
    4 to 12 kg
    8.81 to 26.43 lb
  • Range length
    45 to 64 cm
    17.72 to 25.20 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

Al­though rhe­sus mon­keys show mate pref­er­ences, in gen­eral they are highly promis­cu­ous. As they live in multi-male, mul­ti­fe­male groups, there are ample op­por­tu­ni­ties for in­di­vid­u­als to cop­u­late with mul­ti­ple part­ners.

Fe­male rhe­sus mon­keys have a sex­ual cycle of 29 days. They are re­cep­tive to cop­u­la­tion for be­tween 8 and 11 days dur­ing that cycle. To so­licit cop­u­la­tions, fe­males pre­sent their hindquar­ters to males. The skin of the per­ineal re­gion be­comes red­ded when the fe­male is in es­trus, and aliphatic acids are pre­sent, prov­ing a po­ten­tial chem­i­cal cue to their state of fer­til­ity.

Rhe­sus mon­keys are se­r­ial moun­ters, mean­ing that males mount a fe­male mul­ti­ple times be­fore ejac­u­lat­ing.

Males at­tract mates ei­ther by hav­ing high dom­i­nance sta­tus within the so­cial group, or some­times by being friendly (groom­ing, car­ry­ing in­fants, etc) to fe­males. (Hrdy and Whit­ten, 1987)

The breed­ing sea­son varies widely amongst pop­u­la­tions. Pop­u­la­tions that live in areas where the win­ters are cold mate in the fall so that the young are born in the spring. Macaca mu­latta that live where sea­sonal changes are less pro­nounced have less well-de­fined mat­ing sea­sons.

The ges­ta­tion pe­riod is around 165 days, and al­most all preg­nan­cies re­sults in birth of a sin­gle young. When kept under uni­form con­di­tions in cap­tiv­ity, fe­males main­tain a steady es­trus cycle of 26 to 28 days.

Un­like many pri­mate species, the es­trus cycle of M. mu­latta is not ac­com­pa­nied by major changes in the fe­males' gen­i­tal re­gion. There is only minor swelling and red­ness around the gen­i­tal area.

In pop­u­la­tions that have dis­tinct breed­ing sea­sons, testes swell to al­most dou­ble their nor­mal size dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son. The dis­pro­por­tion­ately large tes­ti­cles of male rhe­sus mon­keys, and the in­crease in size of their tes­ti­cles dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son, is prob­a­bly re­lated to the num­ber of times a male can cop­u­late over a short pe­riod of time.

(Bus­cov­itch, 1993; Nowak, 1991; Parker, 1990)

New­born macaques weigh be­tween 400 and 500g. They nurse from their mother for about 1 year. Al­though young macaques typ­i­cally cling to their mother's ven­trum for the first few weeks of life, as their abil­ity to keep them­selves up­right im­proves, they ride upon the mother's back. Fe­males reach nre­pro­duc­tive ma­tu­rity at 2.5 to 3 years of age. Males take longer to com­plete the tran­si­tion to adult­hood, reach­ing sex­ual ma­tu­rity at 4.5 to 7 years of age. (Nowak, 1991)

  • Breeding interval
    Females are capable of producing one young per year under good conditions.
  • Breeding season
    Populations that live in areas where the winters are cold mate in the fall; those that live where seasonal changes are less pronounced have less well defined mating seasons
  • Average number of offspring
    1
  • Average number of offspring
    1
    AnAge
  • Range gestation period
    133 to 200 days
  • Average gestation period
    165 days
  • Average weaning age
    12 months
  • Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    2.5 to 4 years
  • Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
    4.5 to 7 years

As is com­mon to most pri­mates, the bulk of parental care falls to fe­males. Moth­ers pro­vide their young with pro­tec­tion, nu­tri­tion, groom­ing, and so­cial ex­pe­ri­ence from birth until in­de­pen­dence.

The role of males in parental care is some­what con­fus­ing. Be­cause so­cial groups con­tain mul­ti­ple males, and be­cause fe­males mate with many of these males, there is no cer­tainty of pa­ter­nity, so males don't even know which young are theirs. There may be some care given to young by close male friends of the mother. These males may be more likely to have sired the off­spring.

  • Parental Investment
  • altricial
  • pre-fertilization
    • provisioning
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-hatching/birth
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-weaning/fledging
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-independence
    • protecting
      • female
  • post-independence association with parents
  • extended period of juvenile learning
  • inherits maternal/paternal territory
  • maternal position in the dominance hierarchy affects status of young

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Rhe­sus mon­keys can live up to 30 years.

Be­hav­ior

Rhe­sus mon­keys are highly ac­tive and very loud. They enjoy being in water and are good swim­mers. They live in groups of up to two hun­dred in­di­vid­u­als. When a group's size reaches 80 to 100 mem­bers, a sub­group of fe­males may split off to form a new group. Pop­u­la­tions gen­er­ally con­sist of a few un­re­lated males and many closely re­lated fe­males. Some­times small groups form that con­sist of only males. Males usu­ally leave the group in which they were born shortly after they reach sex­ual ma­tu­rity. Off­spring born to a mother and son, or to sib­lings, are very rare. Both males and fe­males in a group show a pref­er­ence for high rank­ing mem­bers of the op­po­site sex.

Dom­i­nance hi­er­ar­chies exist in both sexes. This is far more ev­i­dent in males, where com­pe­ti­tion for mates may occur reg­u­larly. The fe­male mem­bers of a group usu­ally live in com­plete har­mony and rarely have vi­o­lent in­ter­ac­tions with one an­other.

Al­though rhe­sus mon­keys live in groups, they are not ter­ri­to­r­ial. Each group of in­di­vid­u­als usu­ally has its own sleep­ing space, but the ter­ri­to­ries of neigh­bor­ing groups may over­lap con­sid­er­ably. Con­fronta­tions be­tween groups are rare. Usu­ally when groups meet, the weaker group will avoid the stronger group. Any con­fronta­tions that arise are be­cause of an un­cer­tainty con­cern­ing strength and dom­i­nance.

(Bus­cov­itch, 1993; Dotta, 1988; Nowak, 1991; Tate, 1947)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion in all mon­keys in­volves a va­ri­ety of vi­sual sig­nals (such as body pos­tures and fa­cial ex­pres­sion), tac­tile com­mu­ni­ca­tion (such as groom­ing, play­ing and fight­ing), vo­cal­iza­tions, and scent cues.

Food Habits

The di­etary habits of rhe­sus mon­keys can vary greatly de­pend­ing upon where they live. Macaca mu­latta is om­niv­o­rous, and often eat roots, herbs, fruits, in­sects, crops, and small an­i­mals. The diet can also vary with the sea­son. For ex­am­ple, rhe­sus that live in the moun­tain forests of north­ern Pak­istan feed pri­mar­ily on clovers dur­ing the sum­mer, but dur­ing win­ter when snow cov­ers the ground they are forced to switch to foods with lower nu­tri­tional val­ues and higher fiber con­tents, such as pine nee­dles and oak leaves. These mon­keys seem to choose their en­vi­ron­ments care­fully with re­spect to food re­sources. Even when they are forced to switch to lower qual­ity food sources dur­ing the win­ter months they do not ex­hibit higher mor­tal­ity rates, al­though they may lose a con­sid­er­able per­cent­age of their body weight.

(Mac­don­ald, 1984; Nowak, 1991; Parker, 1990)

  • Animal Foods
  • birds
  • mammals
  • amphibians
  • reptiles
  • insects
  • Plant Foods
  • leaves
  • roots and tubers
  • fruit

Pre­da­tion

Pri­mates are often wary of po­ten­tial preda­tors. It is likey that large car­ni­vores, rap­tors, and snakes could prey upon these macaques.

Ecosys­tem Roles

The role of these an­i­mals in their ecosys­tems has not been fully de­scribed. Be­cause of their fru­givory, rhe­sus mon­keys may help to dis­perse seeds. As a prey species, they may af­fect preda­tor pop­u­la­tions.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Macaca mu­latta is a pop­u­lar zoo an­i­mal be­cause of its in­nate cu­rios­ity and ac­tive lifestyle. These mon­keys are also used ex­ten­sively for re­search. They are es­pe­cially use­ful in bi­o­log­i­cal, med­i­c­i­nal, and psy­cho­log­i­cal re­search. Macaca mu­latta is most often used in psy­cho­log­i­cal re­search when the em­pha­sis is on per­cep­tion, learn­ing, or be­hav­ior.

(Nowak, 1991; Parker, 1990)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

In India, rhe­sus mon­keys do sig­nif­i­cant dam­age to crops and gar­dens in many areas. Be­cause they are viewed as sa­cred an­i­mals by Hin­dus, often lit­tle is done to stop them from steal­ing crops.

As is true of most non­hu­man pri­mates, there is a high risk that they could carry dis­eases which af­fect hu­mans.

(Nowak, 1991; Parker, 1990)

  • Negative Impacts
  • injures humans
    • bites or stings
  • crop pest

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

IUCN con­sid­ers this species Lower risk/ near threat­ened.

Other Com­ments

The com­mon name, rhe­sus mon­key, is re­spon­si­ble for the nam­ing of the hered­i­tary blood anti­gen Rh-fac­tor that was dis­cov­ered on their red blood cells in 1940. Rh-fac­tor is also found in hu­mans. The mix­ing of Rh blood with non-Rh blood dur­ing blood trans­fu­sions or the later stages of preg­nancy can re­sult in po­ten­tially dan­ger­ous de­fense re­ac­tions.

(Nowak 1991)

The name "rhe­sus" comes from Greek, Rhe­sos, the King of Thrace who as­sisted Priam at Troy. Au­de­bert, the per­son who ap­plied the name to the species, stated that it had no mean­ing.

(Jaeger 1972)

Con­trib­u­tors

Nancy Shef­ferly (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

Joshua Se­in­feld (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Glossary

Palearctic

living in the northern part of the Old World. In otherwords, Europe and Asia and northern Africa.

World Map

acoustic

uses sound to communicate

agricultural

living in landscapes dominated by human agriculture.

altricial

young are born in a relatively underdeveloped state; they are unable to feed or care for themselves or locomote independently for a period of time after birth/hatching. In birds, naked and helpless after hatching.

arboreal

Referring to an animal that lives in trees; tree-climbing.

bilateral symmetry

having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.

chemical

uses smells or other chemicals to communicate

desert or dunes

in deserts low (less than 30 cm per year) and unpredictable rainfall results in landscapes dominated by plants and animals adapted to aridity. Vegetation is typically sparse, though spectacular blooms may occur following rain. Deserts can be cold or warm and daily temperates typically fluctuate. In dune areas vegetation is also sparse and conditions are dry. This is because sand does not hold water well so little is available to plants. In dunes near seas and oceans this is compounded by the influence of salt in the air and soil. Salt limits the ability of plants to take up water through their roots.

diurnal
  1. active during the day, 2. lasting for one day.
dominance hierarchies

ranking system or pecking order among members of a long-term social group, where dominance status affects access to resources or mates

drug

a substance used for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease

endothermic

animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.

fertilization

union of egg and spermatozoan

forest

forest biomes are dominated by trees, otherwise forest biomes can vary widely in amount of precipitation and seasonality.

iteroparous

offspring are produced in more than one group (litters, clutches, etc.) and across multiple seasons (or other periods hospitable to reproduction). Iteroparous animals must, by definition, survive over multiple seasons (or periodic condition changes).

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

mountains

This terrestrial biome includes summits of high mountains, either without vegetation or covered by low, tundra-like vegetation.

native range

the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.

omnivore

an animal that mainly eats all kinds of things, including plants and animals

oriental

found in the oriental region of the world. In other words, India and southeast Asia.

World Map

polygynandrous

the kind of polygamy in which a female pairs with several males, each of which also pairs with several different females.

seasonal breeding

breeding is confined to a particular season

sedentary

remains in the same area

sexual

reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female

social

associates with others of its species; forms social groups.

suburban

living in residential areas on the outskirts of large cities or towns.

tactile

uses touch to communicate

temperate

that region of the Earth between 23.5 degrees North and 60 degrees North (between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle) and between 23.5 degrees South and 60 degrees South (between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle).

terrestrial

Living on the ground.

tropical

the region of the earth that surrounds the equator, from 23.5 degrees north to 23.5 degrees south.

tropical savanna and grassland

A terrestrial biome. Savannas are grasslands with scattered individual trees that do not form a closed canopy. Extensive savannas are found in parts of subtropical and tropical Africa and South America, and in Australia.

savanna

A grassland with scattered trees or scattered clumps of trees, a type of community intermediate between grassland and forest. See also Tropical savanna and grassland biome.

temperate grassland

A terrestrial biome found in temperate latitudes (>23.5° N or S latitude). Vegetation is made up mostly of grasses, the height and species diversity of which depend largely on the amount of moisture available. Fire and grazing are important in the long-term maintenance of grasslands.

urban

living in cities and large towns, landscapes dominated by human structures and activity.

visual

uses sight to communicate

viviparous

reproduction in which fertilization and development take place within the female body and the developing embryo derives nourishment from the female.

year-round breeding

breeding takes place throughout the year

Ref­er­ences

Bus­cov­itch, F.B. The ac­qui­si­tion of dom­i­nance among free-rang­ing rhe­sus mon­key sib­lings. An­i­mal Be­hav­ior. 36: 754-72. Jun. 1988

Dotta, S. Dom­i­nance, rank, and re­pro­duc­tion mat­u­ra­tion in male rhe­sus macaques (Macaca mu­latta). Jour­nal of Re­pro­duc­tion and Fer­til­ity. 99: 113-20. Sept. 1993

Mac­don­ald, D. The En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Mam­mals. Facts on File Pub­lish­ing, NY. 1984

Nowak, R.M. Walker's Mam­mals of the World: Fifth Edi­tion, vol. I. The Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press, Bal­ti­more and Lon­don. 1990 Parker, S.P. Grz­imek's En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Mam­mals, vol. II. Mc­Graw-Hill Pub­lish­ing Co. 1990

Tate, G.H.H. Mam­mals of East­ern Asia. The Macmil­lan Co. 1947

Wil­son, E.D., D.M. Reeder. Mam­mal Species of the World: a tax­o­nom­i­cal and ge­o­graph­i­cal ref­er­ence. Smith­son­ian In­sti­tu­tion Press, Wash­ing­ton. 1993

BBC, 2005. "Rhe­sus Mon­key" (On-line). Ac­cessed May 30, 2005 at http://​www.​bbc.​co.​uk/​nature/​wildfacts/​factfiles/​211.​shtml.

Hrdy, S., P. Whit­ten. 1987. Pat­tern­ing of Sex­ual Ac­tiv­ity. Pp. 370-384 in B Smuts, D Ch­eney, R Sey­farth, R Wrang­ham, T Struh­saker, eds. Pri­mate So­ci­eties. Chicago and Lon­don: The Uni­ver­sity of Chicago Press.

Jaeger, E. 1972. A source-book of bi­o­log­i­cal names and terms. Spring­field, Illi­nois: Charles C. Thomas.

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Classification

Classification

  • Kingdom Animalia animals
  • Phylum Chordata chordates
  • Subphylum Vertebrata vertebrates
  • Class Mammalia mammals
  • Order Primates primates
  • Family Cercopithecidae Old World monkeys
  • Genus Macaca macaques
  • Species Macaca mulatta rhesus monkey