Toque macaque
| Toque macaque | |
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| Macaca sinica sinica | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Primates |
| Family: | Cercopithecidae |
| Genus: | Macaca |
| Species: | M. sinica |
| Binomial name | |
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Macaca sinica (Linnaeus, 1771) |
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| Toque macaque range | |
The toque macaque (Macaca sinica) is a reddish-brown-coloured Old World monkey endemic to Sri Lanka, where it is known as the rilewa or rilawa (Sinhala රිළවා), (hence "rillow" in the Oxford English Dictionary).
With age, the face of females turn slightly pink, prominent in the subsp. sinica.
M. s. sinica is found from the Vavuniya, Mannar, up to the lowlands of Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Puttalam, and Kurunegala along the arid zone of Monaragala, and Hambantota districts.
M. s. aurifrons can be found sympatrically with subsp. sinica within intermediate regions of the country, such as Kegalle, parts of Kurunegala. They are also found in south-western parts of the island including Galle, and Matara districts, near to Kalu Ganga.
M. s. opisthomelas is recently identified as a separate subspecies. It can be found in the entire south-western region of central hill, (bordered with Ratnapura) and Nuwara Eliya districts. They can be seen around the Hakgala Botanical Garden and other cold climatic montane forest patches.
The three recognized subspecies of toque macaques are:
M. s. opisthomelas is similar to subsp. aurifrons, but has a long fur and contrasting golden color in the anterior part of its brown cap.
The three subspecies can be identified through the orientation of their different hair patterns.
The social status is highly structured in toque macaques, where they prevail dominance hierarchies among both males and females. Females change the number of individual composition within a troop. A troop may consist very few as 8 to large as 40. When the troop becomes too much, social tension and aggression towards each other arise, which giving some individuals to flee from the troop. This is remarkable in adults and sub adults, where a troop may consist largely with females. Newly appointed alpha male also show aggressiveness towards females, which results flee. There are sightings, where there are severe fights between individuals of the same troop and some gets heavy wounds to cheeks, eyes, and sometimes carry broken arms.
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Wikipedia