Macaca thibetana
Creators: name: Russell A. Mittermeier
name: Anthony B. Rylands
name: Don E. Wilson
Publisher: name: Lynx Edicions
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Primates
Cercopithecidae
Macaca
Macaca thibetana

description: 17.
Tibetan Macaque
Macaca thibetana
French: Macaque du Tibet / German: Tibet-Makak / Spanish: Macaco tibetano
Other common names: Chinese Stump-tailed Macaque, Milne-Edwards’s Macaque, Pére David's Macaque, Shorttailed Tibetan Macaque, Tibetan Stump-tailed Macaque
Taxonomy. Macacus thibetanus Milne-Edwards, 1870,
China, near Moupin (= Baoxing), Sichuan.
M. thibetana is a member of the sinica (or sinica-arctoides) species group of macaques, including M. sinica, M. radiata, M. assamensis, and arguably M. arctoides. This species hybridizes with M. mulatta in the Kowloon Hills, Hong Kong. Studies of molecular and morphological differentiation among populations are ongoing and indicate the need for future subspecies designations. C. P. Groves, in 2005, listed the subspecies esau described in 1912 from the west of Lochangho, Guangdong Province, China, and two subspecies described in 1996— huangshanensis from Mount Huangshan, southern Anhui Province, eastern China, and guiahouensis from Guizhou Province, south-west China. Considered monotypic here.
Distribution. EC China (25-33° N, 102° 30°-119° 30" E) in E Xizang Autonomous Region (= Tibet), Sichuan, S Gansu, S Shaanxi, Hubei, Anhui, Zhejiang, N Yunnan, Guizhou, Jiangxi, Fujian, N Guangxi, and N Guangdong provinces; W limit in the Yangtze Gorge in W & NW Sichuan and S limit at 23° 48’ N, ¢.110° E in Guangxi. The species may range into NE India (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, and Meghalaya states), although these reports appear to be based on misidentifications.
Descriptive notes. Head-body 61-71 cm (males) and 51-63 cm (females), tail 8-14 cm (males) and 4-8 cm (females); weight 14.2-18.3 kg (males) and 9-13 kg (females). Exceptionally large male Tibetan Macaques may exceed 30 kg. This is the largest of the macaque species. It has a short tail, long dense fur, and a hint of a shoulder mane. Body is dark brown above (weakly or not at all banded) and pale buffy or gray below, with the underside sparser than the upperside, but still not very sparse. Limbs become paler distally to pale brown on hands and feet. Crown also is a paler brown, with a small whorl on the vertex and short hairs radiating from it. There is a prominent pale buffy beard and full cheek whiskers. Facial skin is pale brownish on the muzzle, with narrow naked bands of whitish on either side of the nose. Tail is only 7-9% (adult male) and 11-13% (adult female) of head—body length. Male Tibetan Macaques have small testes in a white or creamy-white scrotum, and the penis is distinct in shape from that ofall other macaques. Body hair of both sexes darkens with age, as does the skin on the faces of the males. Females’ faces redden with age.
Habitat. Broadleaf, evergreen, primary, and secondary forests but also subtropical and deciduous forest formations; seasonal environments at elevations of 600-2500 m. Tibetan Macaques are tolerant of human disturbance. They have been studied in Baishuihe National Nature Reserve and Mount Emei (both in Sichuan) and Huangshan Range (Anhui). The latter two sites are tourist destinations, and Tibetan Macaques there are regularly provisioned, which facilitates research. H. Ogawa noted that while Tibetan and Rhesus (M. mulatta) macaques have overlapping distributions, the former species out competes the latter in high-elevation habitats, and the two species occupy different ecological niches.
Food and Feeding. Tibetan Macaques eat mainly fruits, along with young and mature leaves, shoots, stems,stalks, roots, flowers, berries, seeds, exudates, mushrooms, eggs, and animal prey (including invertebrates, snakes, and birds). Their diets vary by season, with bamboo shoots and fruits being staples in autumn, insects are more important in late spring and summer, and mature leaves and bark during the remainder of the year. Q. K. Zhao reported that Tibetan Macaques were more folivorous than are other macaque species. Tibetan Macaques are sometimes fed by humans near temples and at tourist sites.
Breeding. Female Tibetan Macaques have a 26day reproductive cycle and show a slight reddening of the genitals during the periovulatory period, but they have no sexual swelling. There is a discrete birth season, with mating taking place in July-December. Temperature is positively correlated with the males’ fecal testosterone levels. Highand mid-ranked males copulate more than low-ranked males at this time of year. Tibetan Macaques mate throughout the year and engage in non-reproductive copulation, which may reduce conflict among males and increase the females’ access to preferred foods; males are more likely to feed with mating partners. During reproductive and non-reproductive sex, the male ejaculates following a single mount of the female. Typically, a single young is born after a gestation of 5-6 months. Twins are rare but have been documented at Huangshan Range. Infants are pale yellow, and their coat changes to tan by their second year. Adults of both sexes handle infants in a behavior called “bridging” in which infants are used by one adult monkey to initiate and/or maintain contact with another adult. Young are nursed for ¢.12 months. Sexual maturity occurs at five (females) to seven (males) years. Alpha males are often young natal adults that prefer to mate with unrelated group members, but mother-son and sibling mating have been observed occasionally. Free-living individuals can live for more than 25 years. Available data on these parameters come from free-living but provisioned populations. Provisioning may affect several aspects of life history, including discreteness of mating and birth seasons, age at first reproduction, interbirth interval, and age at death.
Activity patterns. Tibetan Macaques are diurnal and mainly terrestrial. They prefer to sleep on rockycliff ledges or in trees. During snowy weather, they may sleep in caves. Huddling while sleeping increases with decreasing temperature.
Movements, Home range and Social organization. Tibetan Macaques live in multimale—multifemale groups of 15-50 individuals, in which adult females outnumber adult males. The number of males in each social group is notably high, with a sex ratio (males to females) of 1:19. Female macaques are philopatric, while males disperse from their natal group. In some macaques, including Tibetan Macaques, males have secondary dispersal (s), usually into neighboring groups that include male kin. Neighboring macaque groups have overlapping home ranges. Macaque daily movements and home ranges vary widely by habitat type, resource distribution, and group size. With respect to the entire genus, B. Thierry reported day movements of 100-3000 m and home ranges of 0-12-22 km*. Despite uniformity across the genus in basic aspects of social organization, macaque species vary in qualities of aggression, extent of kinbased affiliation, occurrence of post-conflict reconciliation, maternalstyles, and reproductive behaviors within their social groups. Species can be positioned on a graded, social-style scale. Grade one characterizes species in which conflicts are unidirectional and follow a strongly defined dominance hierarchy and have high-intensity aggression, low rates of reconciliation after fights, strong kin bias, and protective maternal styles. Grade four species have the opposite qualities. Tibetan Macaques appear to be closer to the grade-one end of the spectrum in terms of rates and direction of aggression and lack of reconciliation, but they also exhibit qualities more typical of species classified in grade four, such as intense male—male affiliation, relaxed maternal style, and low rates of female kin bias. Tibetan and Barbary (M. sylvanus) macaques are famous for a particular affiliative behavior called “bridging,” in which an infant is used by one adult to initiate or maintain contact with another adult. Because groups of Tibetan Macaque include many males, they may use bridging and other behaviors (e.g. embracing and mounting) to maintain alliances, reduce aggression, and sustain their rank in the dominance hierarchy. Adult female Tibetan Macaques also use bridging to regulate their relationships.
Status and Conservation. CITES Appendix II. Classified as Near Threatened on The IUCN Red List. The Tibetan Macaqueis listed in the Second Category of State Key Protected Wildlife List in the China Red Data Book of Endangered Animals. Habitat loss within the distribution of the Tibetan Macaque is now deemed stabilized. In areas where forest has been cleared for farmland, Tibetan Macaques sometimes raid crops and are hunted by local people. Populations are now distributed in 60 nature reserves where hunting is prohibited. Outside of reserves, targeted hunting is probably rare, but the occupation of remote mountainous regions by Tibetan Macaques makes regular monitoring difficult at some locations. Tibetan Macaques can adapt to various environmental conditions and can be found living in close association with humans or in human-disturbed environments. Most non-human predators (e.g. large cats) of the Tibetan Macaque have been extirpated. Tibetan Macaques are rare in captivity in and outside of China; they are difficult to maintain in a captive setting. No comprehensive field survey has been conducted, but the total population size has been estimated at ¢.10,000 individuals. Tibetan Macaques are best known from research conducted at two tourist sites: Mount Emei and Huangshan Range. At Huangshan Range, recent research has focused on impacts of park management styles and provisioning on infant mortality, how exposure to tourists affects the macaques’ stress levels and rates of intragroup aggression, and potential for zoonotic disease transmission. Tibetan Macaques at Mount Emei compete for access to areas that overlap with tourist trails. More dominant groups monopolize trails with greaterlikelihood of pay off from tourist-provided food. Atthissite, they have become aggressive and can pose a danger to visitors. H. Ogawa noted that provisioning by Buddhist monks of Tibetan Macaques at Mount Emei may have occurred for several hundred years, making this the longest consistently provisioned primate population.
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description: Published as part of Russell A. Mittermeier, Anthony B. Rylands & Don E. Wilson, 2013, Cercopithecidae, pp. 550-755 in Handbook of the Mammals of the World – Volume 3 Primates, Barcelona :Lynx Edicions on pages 642-643, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6867065