Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
All of the other seven subspecies are isolated on small islands. M. f. atri-
ceps , M. f. condorensis , and M. f. karimondjiwae all populate small shallow-
water fringing islands. M. f. atriceps is found on the island of Koh Khram Yai
off the southwestern coast of Thailand. M. f. condorensis inhabits Con Son,
an island off the southeastern coast of Vietnam. M. f. karimondjiwae inhabits
Karimunjawa Island, off the north central coast of Java. M. f. umbrosa , M. f.
fusca , M. f. lasiae , and M. f. tua , all inhabit small deep-water fringing islands.
M. f. umbrosa is found on the islands of Katchall, Little Nicobar, and Great
Nicobar in the Indian Nicobar Island chain north of Sumatra. M. f. fusca is
located on the small island of Simeulue, which is off the west coast of northern
Sumatra. Nearby, M. f. lasiae inhabits Lasia Island. Finally, off of the east coast
of Kalimantan, M. f. tua occupies Maratua Island.
Subspecies characterization
Fooden ( 1995 ) assessed the skins of long-tailed macaques from all over its
range and found significant morphological variation between regions, and this
is the basis for his subspecific classification system. The variation he found
was in the dorsal pelage color, crown color, thigh color, lateral crest pattern,
head length, body length, and relative tail length. One of the major patterns he
observed was that monkeys on fringing islands tended to show a blackish color-
ation of their pelage, and that large island and mainland monkeys were lighter
(Fooden, 1995 ). Aside from being darker, some island species exhibit other
distinct variations. For example, the Philippine subspecies has distinguishing
molar variation (Fooden, 1991 ), while the Simeulue long-tailed macaque has
a shorter tail and demonstrates less sexual dimorphism than M. f. fascicularis
(van Schaik and van Noordwijk, 1985 ). The Simeulue long-tailed macaque
also exhibits distinct behavioral differences. They live in smaller groups that
fission and have a distinct loud call that is reported to be similar to the loud call
of the Siberut macaque, M. pagensis (van Schaik and van Noordwijk, 1985 ;
Sugardjito et al ., 1989 ). Too little is known of the other island subspecies to
know if they also exhibit unique characteristics aside from being darker.
Macaca fascicularis aurea , a mainland subspecies, is distinct morphologic-
ally appearing to be larger, having darker skin, and a browner-colored pelage
(Fooden, 1995 ; San and Hamada, Chapter 2). Although distinct morphologic-
ally, they also exhibit a striking behavioral difference from other populations
of long-tailed macaques because they have been observed to customarily use
stone tools to crack oysters, as well as other shellfish, snails and nuts (Carpenter,
1887 ; Malaivijitnond et al ., 2007 ). Although other tool-use behavior has been
seen idiosyncratically in M. f. fascicularis (Chiang, 1967 ; Fuentes et al ., 2005 ,
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