EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

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The Monkey with a Bonnet

Credit & Copyright:  Dr. Bruce G. Marcot
  

Explanation:  Monkey with a punk hairdo!  This is a bonnet macaque ... widely found throughout, and endemic to, south India.   Why just south India?  Its range to the north is blocked by two main rivers -- the Tapti and the Godavari.  To the north range the similar rhesus macaque.   Such landforms also form biogeographic barriers for a number of other wildlife species, such as red junglefowl and gray junglefowl, Mayalan giant squirrel and Indian giant squirrel, and five-striped palm squirrel and three-striped palm squirrel, found respectively in north and south India with no overlapping ranges between the species of each pair.   Bonnet macaques are so-named for their whorl of head hair.  It is found around temples and many human habitations.  In the main photo, above, this little rascal was enjoying leftovers of chips discarded at a canyon lookout site.   Bonnet macaques are very social and live in very organized troops with dominance hierarchies among the males.         The pelage of bonnet macaques is a tawny brown in winter, but like the fellow show here, it turns to a scruffy gray in summer.      Bonnet macaques will eat darn near anything ... including fruits, leaves, bird eggs, insects, spiders, grubs, and more. I watched this young fellow try in vain to remove the sealed top of this garbage bin, trying oh so hard to move the heavy stone and peel up the rim of the top. Bonnet macaques are largely arboreal, or post up on high points, coming down to the ground less often in search of food. This fellow was likely serving as a sentinel for his troop, watching for signs of danger such as from the larger and aggressive common langur.