Page 9 - Jan - March 2021

VOL. 18 No. 1
RHESUS MACAQUE DID YOU KNOW?

The name Rhesus is from a
This monkey belongs to the Old World category. Humans are the only other king from Greek mythology.
primate that has a wider distribution than the Rhesus Macaque.
The name Rhesus was given
Pragati Chawla, Class 8A, Delhi Public School, Sonepat; Khwahish Singhal, Class 8B, The Shriram by Jean-Baptise Audebert, a
Millennium School, Faridabad
French naturalist. However,
Scientifi c Name: Macaca mulatta there is no link between
Common Name: Rhesus monkey the two.

DESCRIPTION FEMALE BONDING
Male macaques disperse, while all females in a group are
Rhesus Macaque has a brown
related to one another. They share a very strong bond
body, a pink head which
and only let a few male in the group to protect them.
underlines their expressive
There is gender dimorphism in Rhesus Macaques. Males
faces, and a considerably
grow up to 1.7 ft and females up to 1.5 ft.
long tail. They have cropped
hair on their heads.
EXPRESSIONS AND MORE
Sunayana Majhi, Class 8E, Shri
Shikshayatan School, Kolkata; Lashikkaa
T., Class 9, Global Indian International These Macaques are
School, Whitefi eld, Bangalore
very expressive. They use
their mouths, ears, and

DISTRIBUTION eyebrows ro emote.
Some examples are
Illustration by: Piyushi
They are opening their mouth, Suyal, Class 8, Army
distributed lip smacking, puckering Public School, Shankar
Vihar, New Delhi
across India their lips, fl apping their ears,
in a large raising or lowering their eyebrows, etc.
population.
They are native MONKEYS AND HUMANS
to Asia. They are
considered to be These Macaques co-exist with humans and are
the largest native therefore highly adaptable. They are also often known
range of any non-human primate, Illustration by: Mritunjai to cause trouble in residential areas. However, it would
as they cover the whole of Asia — Sinh Jhala, Class 4, Anand be unfair to blame them. These monkeys are facing
Niketan International School
from Afghanistan to Indo-China. Ahmedabad habitat loss, and often have trouble fi nding food. Half
of their population in India live along with humans!
Kriti Walia, Class 7, Bawa Lalvani Public School, Kapurthala

LABORATORY THREAT GROWING CONCERN

One of the largest causes of threat for these macaques This macaque falls under
is lab tests and research. Since they are anatomically Least Concern in the IUCN
and physiologically close to humans, many tests are Red List. They are found in
done on them, such as vaccine tests. The discovery a wide range of habitats
of the Rhesus blood factor (positive or negative and adapt well to their
blood groups) was also on macaques. surroundings. However,
they too are facing
ACTIVITY: FOLK problems with expanding
MONKEYS urbanisation as the forest
keeps
getting
cover
Using any Indian folk art style as depleted.
Illustration by:
inspiration, make a drawing of a Anandi Laxmi Somiah, Class 11, Illustration By: Aunoushka Bardhan, Class 7,
Rhesus Macaque. Sanskriti School, New Delhi Modern High School For Girls, Kolkata

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