Northern Pig-tailed Macaque

About this species

Diet

Mostly fruit; when scarce, human food, fungi, ants, termites, spiders, grasshoppers, caterpillars, beetles, bark, eggs, lizards and squirrels

Range

In India, north-east south of the Brahmaputra: Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura

The northern pig-tailed macaque was long treated as a subspecies of the southern pig-tailed macaque but is now a species of its own, a split aided by differences such as sexual swellings. It is found in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. It has a rounded greyish crown of hair running from the cheeks over the head and under the chin, and males and females differ in appearance (Wikipedia, general species account).

In India it is found south of the Brahmaputra, from Assam and Meghalaya to eastern Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura. It is mainly a fruit-eater, but in cold seasons or where habitat is degraded it becomes more omnivorous and relies on human food such as rice, bread and biscuits, and also takes fungi, ants, termites, spiders, beetles, bark, eggs, lizards and squirrels. Social groups are matriarchal. Habitat loss, hunting and the pet trade are named threats (Wikipedia, general species account).

Description: Wildlife of India guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com); general species information paraphrased from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)