Macaca fuscata
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 fuscata

description: 21.
Japanese Macaque
Macaca fuscata
French: Macaque du Japon / German: Japan-Makak / Spanish: Macaco japonés
Other common names: Yakushima Macaque (yakui)
Taxonomy. Inuus fuscatus Blyth, 1875,
Japan.
M. fuscata is a member of the fascicularis species group of macaques, including M. fascicularis, M. mulatta, and M. cyclops, and has the characteristic helmet-shaped and relatively long and narrow glans penis. It would seem that M. fuscata arrived in Japan from a progenitor probably similar or identical to M. mulatta on the Korean peninsula to Kyushu-West Honshu during the Middle Pleistocene. There were evidently now-submerged land bridges during one or two glacial intervals of sea level depression ¢.0-63-0-43 million years ago. The oldest macaque fossils found in Japan are a molar tooth and humerus similar to those of M. fuscata. Their age is difficult to ascertain, but through association with proboscidean fossils, they are tentatively dated to the age of one or the other of these land bridges. Korean macaque fossils are about the same age. Two subspecies recognized.
Subspecies and Distribution.
M.f.fuscataBlyth,1875—JapaneseArchipelagoSoftheTsugaruStrait(41°30°N),inHonsu,Shikoku,andKyushuIs,andtheclose-lyingKojima(=Koshima),Kashima,Awajishima,Shodoshima,andKinkazanislets.
M. f. yakui Kuroda, 1941 —Japanese Archipelago (Yakushima I, ¢.60 km S of Kyushu).
Descriptive notes. Head—body 47-2—-65 cm (males) and 46.4-60.1 cm (females), tail 8:7 cm (males) and 8-1 cm (females); weight 5.6-18.4 kg (males) and 4-13.8 kg (females). Mean head-body length of male Japanese Macaques exceeds that of females by 9%. Mean body weight of males exceeds that of females by 32%. Color of the crown and relatively long dorsal pelage varies from pale yellowish brown to grayish brown to dark golden brown, with fur on outer surfaces of limbs and tail slightly paler than the adjacent trunk surface. Pelage varies from whitish to pale gray to pale ocherous buff on ventral surface of the trunk and inner surfaces of limbs. Prominent side whiskers are somewhat paler than the crown, and hairs on sides of the head usually form a small crest or whorl near the jaw angle (infrazygomatic crest). Thinly haired facial skin is pinkish to reddish. Tail is very short and well furred and may have a white tuft at the tip. Dorsal pelage color, generally slightly paler in females than in males, tends to be paler in the northern part of the distribution of Japanese Macaques, and an annual molt occurs in late spring—early summer. Dorsal pelage of newborn infants is dark brown to blackish, conspicuously darker than in adults, and pink facial skin is paler than in adults. Replacement of newborn pelage begins at c.2 months of age and is complete by 4-5 months. The nominate subspecies has pale brown to dark brown pelage on dorsal surface of hands, similar to or paler than dorsal trunk pelage. The “Yakushima Macaque” (M. f. yakui) is distinguished by blackish pelage on the dorsal surface ofits hands, distinctly darker than its dorsal trunk pelage.
Habitat. Warm temperate, evergreen broadleaf forest in the southern part of the distribution and cool temperate, deciduous broadleaf forest in the northern part. The Japanese Macaque is absent in most lowland areas, although it is presumed to have inhabited these areas before intensive human exploitation. Elevational range extends to 3180 m. Observations have been made ofJapanese Macaques in subalpine needle-leaf forest at 3050 m during relatively mild weather. The so-called “snow monkeys” in the Shigakogen area of Nagano Prefecture survive winter snows by bathing in thermal pools.
Food and Feeding. Japanese Macaques eat forest fruits, seeds, nuts, leaves, flowers, shoots, buds, and bark. Minor dietary components include roots, grasses, herbs, fungi, insects, crabs, spiders, mollusks, fish, and bird eggs. On Koshima Islet, they are known for the innovation and social transmission of food-preparation techniques, such as sweet-potato washing and wheat washing (“placer-mining”). Elsewhere, they are known for non-utilitarian behaviors such as stone handling among young individuals. Crop raiding by Japanese Macaques has intensified with human encroachment upon their habitat.
Breeding. Male Japanese Macaques appear to sexually mature at c.4-5 years of age, and by five years of age almost all males have emigrated from their natal group. Full socio-sexual maturity does not occur until ¢.8-5 years when the frequency of mating activity is aboutfive times as great as at younger ages and the (near-) mature, intensely red sexual skin of the face, perianal area, and scrotum has developed. The first menstruation of females usually occurs at ¢.3-5 years old, at about which time para-anal pubertal swellings and proceptive/receptive behavior may occur. Subcaudal or paravulval pubertal swellings occur during mating seasons over the next 2-3 years. Bare skin on the face, nipples, and perineum of adult females becomes intensely reddish during the mating season, increasing and decreasing in intensity during receptive and non-receptive intervals, respectively. An odoriferous vaginal discharge occurs during the periovulatory period in adult females, but there are no perineal swellings. A mature female may exhibit zero to six proceptive/receptive periods during the mating season. Conception usually occurs during the first ovulation cycle, but post-conception copulations may occur. The mean gestation is 171-7 days. A small sample of 21 birth weights suggests that mean weight in female neonates (546-8 g) is close to that in male neonates (538-7 g). In provisioned groups, females generally give birth to their first infant at ¢.5-6 years. Mean interbirth intervals are 1-7 years in provisioned and 2-6 years in non-provisioned groups. Reproduction is strongly seasonal, with mating restricted to autumn-winter and births to spring—summer. Birth dates tend to occur earlier as latitude increases, presumably to enhance infant development before the poor feeding conditions in winter. During the mating season, females and males, including nongroup solitary males, form consortships of varying duration, and both sexes are likely to have more than one consortship partner during a mating season. A male usually mounts a female dorsoventrally, gripping her waist and shanks with his hands and feet. Ejaculatory copulations usually consist of a series of mounts separated by brief dismounts of ¢.30 seconds (multiple-mount ejaculators). Non-reproductive sexual behavior (homosexual and autosexual) has been observed in natural and semi-natural groups. Infants may be fully weaned by 6-8 months or continue to nurse for about one year. The greatest known life span is 33 years in a provisioned group, and the greatest age at which a female is known to have given birth is 26 years.
Activity patterns. Japanese Macaques are semi-terrestrial. Detailed information on time spent on the ground and in trees is available from a study of the population at Tsubaki Wild Animal Park, Shirahama-cho, Wakayama Prefecture. During daytime hours, average time spent on the ground was 68:3% for males and 39-8% for females. Feeding, including ingestion of mature broadleaf tree leaves after a season of unusually poor fruit production, occupied 38% of daytime hours in a group in western Yakushima. The Japanese Macaque usually sleeps in trees, but sleeping on the ground has been reported on the two small islands of Kinkazan and Kojima, neither of which harbors predators. Japanese Macaques reportedly swim well, including in the ocean.
Movements, Home range and Social organization. Home range sizes of Japanese Macaques are strongly influenced by forest type and are positively correlated with group size. Home range is relatively small in evergreen broadleaf forest (1-4-6-4 ha/ group member) and much larger in deciduous broadleaf forest (9-79 ha/group member). On western Yakushima, the population density was estimated at 0-7 groups/km? in undisturbed evergreen broadleaf forest and 1-5 groups/km? in disturbed evergreen broadleaf forest. The mean group size of 117 wild groups was 40-8 (+ SD 28-9) individuals (range 10-161). Provisioned groups tend to be larger; maximum group size reported in a provisioned group at Takasakiyama, Oita Prefecture, was 1255 individuals. Aggressive behavior between neighboring groups varies from frequent to rare, or absent. Groups ofJapanese Macaques are multimale—multifemale, with resident lineages of female kin and males more than five years old emigrating from natal groups and entering nearby or even distant groups. A daughter eventually outranks all females that rank below her mother. She remains subordinate to her mother, but newborn daughters rise in rank above their sisters’ rank. The mean composition of 35 natural groups was ¢.18% adult males, 32% adult females, 35% juveniles, and 15% infants. Group size may change by fission or extinction by fusion. Large groups often split into two or three groups, reportedly along matrilines.
Status and Conservation. CITES Appendix II. Classified as Least Concern on The [UCN Red List, including both subspecies. Prior to 1945, the range of the Japanese Macaque was contracting as an apparent consequence of habitat destruction and hunting for food and medicinal purposes. It disappeared from the small islands of Omishima, Hiradoshima, and Tanegashima in the mid-20" century. Subsequent population expansion has been evident in eastern Japan, while both expansion and reduction (or disappearance) of local populations have been observed in western Japan. The status of populations ofJapanese Macaques in less suitable habitat such as higher mountain slopes remains unknown. Hunting regulations have protected them from commercial and sport hunting since 1947, but the same law provides for removal of nuisance animals such as crop-raiders; the number of which has risen rapidly since the early 1970s. The expansion of commercially important conifer plantations, which diminish habitat quality, and increasing agricultural depredation by Japanese Macaques, an apparent consequence of changes in human land use and rural demography, now influence management policies. More than 10,000 Japanese Macaques have been exterminated annually since 1998 as agricultural pests. Some of these monkeys are used for teaching purposes in medical and dental schools. Previously, the Japanese Macaque waslisted as Data Deficient on The IUCN Red List primarily because it is unclear if current population trends will assure its sustainability.
Bibliography. Abegg & Thierry (2002a), Anonymous (2002/2003), Chatani (2003), Fooden (2006), Fooden & Aimi (2005), Hanya (2004), Hirata et al. (2001), Huffman (1984, 1996), Kawai (1958, 1965), Kawai et al. (1992), Kishida (1953), Koyama (1970), Maruhashi (1992), Oi (2003), Sprague (2002), Sugiyama & Ohsawa (1988), Watanabe & Muroyama (2005).
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 page 647, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6867065