Macaques

What is a macaque? Macaca is the geographically most widely distributed genus of non-human primates. When these close relatives of baboons and mangabeys migrated out of Africa about 6–7 million years ago they left the Barbary macaque in northern Africa; all other 22 extant species settled or emerged in south, east and south-east Asia. Macaques deviate from common conceptions of monkeys as swinging or jumping canopy dwellers: wherever they go they walk on their legs and arms, which are almost equally long. Where the forest disappears they move into the mountains or follow man into his cities. Hence macaques are a widespread, not always welcome, sight across Asian cities. Hindus and Buddhists worship macaques as companions of Lord Hanuman, who helped to reunite Prince Rama with his abducted wife Sita. But where macaques and humans get too close, it is usually not peaceful at all. Driven out of their natural environment, macaques raid crops and beg for and steal food, and humans are often harassed by these fearless and determined monkeys. The adaptability of macaques to different habitats, climates and diets accounts also for their prominent role as an easytobreed resource in biomedical research. In blood typing, for example, we make use of the rhesus factor which was first discovered in a rhesus macaque. Macaques joined NASA missions into space in their studies of the effects of weightlessness on bodily functions. The first primate that was cloned was a macaque, and the first transgenic primate was a rhesus macaque with jellyfish genes.