Rhesus Macaques

The rhesus monkey is the best known species of macaque. With brown coats, red faces and rears, close-cropped hair on their heads and very expressive faces, they are native to Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Southeast Asia and China, living in forests and human communities.  A few troops of introduced rhesus monkeys now live wild in Florida.

Their natural diets include fruits, seeds, roots, herbs, and insects. In areas of human habitation, they also eat crops, search through trash for food, and are fed by worshipers in Hindu temples. Rhesus monkeys are held sacred in some parts of India. Temple groups may number 50 to 200 or more.

In forests, rhesus monkeys live in groups of several adults of both genders and their young, with groups numbering 12 to 20 individuals. They are considered arboreal (living in trees), but spend a good amount of time on the ground.

Rhesus macaques are 18 to 25-inches tall with 7 to 13-inch tails. Their tails are not prehensile. The monkeys weight 9 to 27 pounds. They are quadrupeds, walking on all fours.

Rhesus macaques are hardy, highly intelligent and very lively monkeys. When young, they are docile. As they mature they may be considered bad tampered and aggressive.

Because of its hardiness and intelligence, the rhesus monkey is the most commonly used primate in medical and scientific research. The determination of the Rh (rhesus) factor in human blood involves reaction with the blood of this monkey, the polio and smallpox vaccines were developed thanks to the rhesus macaque, and it preceded humans in space travel.  We owe much to the rhesus monkey.

- from Staying Connected, Holiday 2007

More on the Rhesus Macaque:

When one thinks of a nonhuman primate, he or she might think of Curious George and visions of adorable little monkeys swinging from trees and eating bananas as they bask in the sun and hang by their tails. But what is not considered is the same adorable little monkeys stuck in cages away from what they once knew, away from their families, and never feeling the sun on their faces. These innocent animals are taken, usually as infants, and used for testing for pharmaceuticals and disease control. Their fates are taken out of their hands and placed in that of a scientist who may have little regard for the anguish to which the animals are certain to succumb. The monkeys that are most likely to meet this fate are rhesus macaques because they are one of the closest related nonhuman primates to humans. The macaque's nearly 3 billion DNA base pairs are 93.5% identical to those found in the human genome, as expected for a species whose lineage diverged from that of humans about 25 million years ago.

In January 2000, the rhesus macaque became the first cloned primate with the birth of Tetra.

January 2001 saw the birth of the first transgenic primate, carrying genes from a jellyfish.

NEPS volunteer Caitlin Raimondi contributed "More on the Rhesus Macaque". Caitlin is a biology major at Curry College, on her way to becoming a wildlife veterinarian.

View video of wild rhesus macaques

courtesy of ARKive.org: