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The
long-tailed macaque, Macaca fascicularis, is also called
the crab-eating macaque. It is found in southeast Asia from
Burma
to the
Philippines
and southward through
Indochina, Malaysia, and Indonesia. There are about 2-3 million in the wild but they are
threatened by habitat loss and persecution by humans. Long-tailed macaques are hunted for food and as a pest on cultivated
crops. They are also among the top 5 most-used primates for
medical research. The long tailed macaque was the clinical test
animal for development of the polio vaccine.
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Long tailed macaques eat a wide variety of foods such as fruits,
crabs, flowers, insects, leaves, fungi, and grasses. We came
upon a troop of these macaques foraging for food in the
mangrove swamps one morning as the tide was going out. They were
eating various marine creatures which they dug up from the
mud. As the ocean receded, the macaques followed the water line
and were soon on the sandy beach. We watched this macaque stand
peering into the water for crabs. As soon as he spotted one, he
would press his hand down on it and carefully drag it in through
the sand toward him. Then, as he lifted up the crab, it would bite his
fingers so he had to do a hasty juggling act with both hands
before the crab could be successfully torn apart and eaten.
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