Celebes crested macaque or Sulawesi crested macaque
Facts about this animal
The Celebes crested macaque reaches a head-body length of 50-57 cm in males and 45-55 cm in females. Males may reach a body weight of more than 10 kg, the weight of females ranges from 3.6-5.5 kg. The tail is short, measuring only about 1.5-2.5 cm. The face is blackish, sparsely covered with short blackish hairs, the muzzle elongated, the ears naked or with sparse white hairs, and there is a crest of 5-15 cm long hairs on the crown.The coat is dense and woolly, black, blackish or grizzled in colour. Females are generally somewhat paler than males.
Breeding is non-seasonal and therefore occurs at any time of year. Females come into oestrous every 33-36 days and advertise their fertility with swollen pink bottoms. After a gestation period of 5½ months a single infant is born, which is blackish with a dusky grey face. Older infants are brown. They reach sexual maturity at 4-6 years.
Celebes crested macaque are social monkeys and used to live in groups of up to 100 individuals, which may split into smaller units of 10-25 individuals for foraging. The groups are led by dominant males. Due to their decline in numbers, they are now found in smaller groups only.
Celebes crested macaque feed on figs, other fruit and plant material, insects, crabs and small vertebrates such as mice and lizards.
Did you know?
That two subspecies of the Celebes crested macaque have been described - Macaca nigra nigra and Macaca nigra nigrescens, which are considered to represent two different species by some authors?
|Name (Scientific)||Macaca nigra|
|Name (English)||Celebes crested macaque or Sulawesi crested macaque|
|Name (French)||Macaque à crête ou Macaque nègre|
|Name (Spanish)||Macaco Negro Crestado|
|CITES Status||Appendix II|
|CMS Status||Not listed|
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|Range||Indonesia: Northeastern Sulawesi and introduced to Bacan Island|
|Wild population||The density is estimated at approx. 3 individuals/km2, except in Tangkoko Batuangus Nature Reserve where it is approx. 60 individuals/km2. The introduced population in the island of Pulau Bacán in the Moluccas, is likely to be less than the 100,000 individuals (1998) (Red List IUCN 2011)|
|Zoo population||234 reported to ISIS (2006)|
In the Zoo
How this animal should be transported
For air transport, Container Note 31 of the IATA Live Animals Regulations should be followed.
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Why do zoos keep this animal
The Celebes crested macaque is endangered in the wild due to ongoing habitat loss and degradation and to uncontrolled hunting for food. Therefore three regions - Australia, Europe and North America - maintain coordinated ex situ breeding programmes.