Macaques are Old World monkeys of the genus Macaca, within the family Cercopithecidae, comprising numerous species distributed across Asia and North Africa, the latter represented by the Barbary macaque. They are medium-sized, robust Primates with cheek pouches for storing food, varied tail lengths across species, a…
Macaques are Old World monkeys of the genus Macaca, within the family Cercopithecidae, comprising numerous species distributed across Asia and North Africa, the latter represented by the Barbary macaque. They are medium-sized, robust Primates with cheek pouches for storing food, varied tail lengths across species, and a generalist, omnivorous diet that includes fruit, leaves, seeds, insects, and other small animals. Macaques are highly adaptable, occupying habitats from tropical forests to temperate mountains and human-modified landscapes, and this ecological flexibility contributes to their wide range. They are intensely social, living in multi-male, multi-female groups organised by matrilineal kinship and dominance hierarchies, with social bonds maintained through grooming and complex communication. Because of their physiological and genetic similarity to humans, macaques, including the rhesus and cynomolgus species, are among the most widely used non-human primate models in biomedical and behavioural research, contributing to studies of immunology, neuroscience, infectious disease, and reproductive biology. Their well-characterised social systems also make them important subjects in primatology and comparative cognition. As members of the cercopithecoid radiation, macaques are studied within broader investigations of primate phylogeny, genetics, and evolution, and several populations are of conservation interest where human pressures affect their habitats and survival.
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