Idea #414 – Observing the Rhesus Monkeys in India
The Rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta), so called rhesus monkey or Bandar, is common in all Afghanistan, to northern India and in Southern China. Rhesus monkey reach 64 centimeter of length, with a tail reaching 30 centimeters. Males weigh on average 7,7 kg and females 5,3 kg. They have a brown color in grey and the face is pinkish. Relatively easy to feed up in captivity, the rhesus monkeys were often used for medical or biological researches. Living in the daytime, rhesus monkey is as well ground as tree-dwelling. They are for the greater part herbivores and feed on leaves, on needles of pines, on roots and occasionally on insects or on small animals. These monkeys developed pockets of storage in the cheeks, what allows them to store of the food and to run away to eat later the collected pieces. The group can count up to 180 individuals but the average is situated in about twenty. Females are 4 times as numerous as males. The social hierarchy is matriarchal, the rank of each depends on its family ties with the dominant female. The care of the youngest and the supervision of the territory are shared by the members of the group. If females are more or less calm, males are more turbulent. Rhesus monkeys are known for their trend to move rural spaces towards the urban sectors, coming to look for the charities or for the garbage of the human beings. They became real parasites in certain zones as the city of New Delhi, for example, where they are collected as a possible risk for the safety and public healths. We try to pull them the tail, just to see !
Where is it ?
Mahakuta, Karnataka, India
