Monkey business – Part 1 The Macaques
On Safari In Udawalawe National Park With Udawalawe Ethical Safari
In Udawalawe National Park you will see two species of monkey, the Toque Macaque and the Tufted Grey Langur. This week let’s look at the cheekiest monkey, the Macaque!
Macaques have a strong social structure and they live in troops of between 20 and 30 individuals. Hierarchy is very important for Macaques with there being dominant males and females in the group. This is particularly an issue for young males, when they start to become independent from their mothers and start to mature, they can be subjected to aggression from the alpha male of the troop and can be forced out of the group or even killed.
Macaque pregnancies take around 5 to 6 months and after birth the babies hold on to the mothers for the first 2 months. The mother carries them under her tummy so she can protect the baby at all times.
Our Macaque groups are very fun to watch, they have crazy hairstyles, making each monkey individual and they are extremely cheeky. Clients love to watch them playing, chasing each other and other social activities like grooming.
These naughty little monkeys are smaller and faster than the Grey Langurs and are more interested in visitors to the park. The move incredibly quickly through the trees and on the ground and are very playful characters.
Whilst they may look funny and cute they can be aggressive, that is why it is important that we don’t try to feed them or interact with them. Let’s keep our wildlife wild! Feeding or trying to touch any of the animals can destroy their natural behaviours and put them at risk if they become too used to humans.
You can see the impact of human interaction with Macaques in other parts of the world where they often steal items from tourists and have been know to cause injuries, we don’t want that here in our National Park.
Join us to watch these entertaining little monkeys natural, cheeky behaviour responsibly. They are so much fun and our clients love them.
Next week we will talk about the elegant Grey Langur and in Part 3 we will discuss how monkeys live closely with other animals for protection from predators.
