Arunachal Macaque

About this species

Habitat

High-altitude forest at about 2,000–3,500m

Range

Eastern Himalaya of Arunachal Pradesh, India, and possibly Bhutan and China

The Arunachal macaque is a relatively large brown primate with a comparatively short tail, compactly built with a very dark face. It lives at high altitude, between 2,000 and 3,500 m, making it one of the highest-dwelling primates. It is native to the eastern Himalaya, and the Monpa people of West Kameng and Tawang call it mun zala, the deep-forest monkey (Wikipedia, general species account).

It was noticed as a new form in 1997 by the Indian primatologist Anwaruddin Choudhury, who thought it a subspecies of the Tibetan macaque, and was described as a new species in 2005 by scientists of the Nature Conservation Foundation, India. It belongs to the same species group as the Assam, Tibetan, bonnet and toque macaques. The cached account gives no diet or breeding information (Wikipedia, general species account).

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