From the archive record
Macaque eating rotten banana in Adhatoda vasica shrubbery in Corbett National Park area in Ramnagar, Uttarakhand. The macaques constitute a genus (Macaca) of Old World monkeys of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. The 23 species of macaques are widespread over Earth. Aside from humans (genus Homo), the macaques are monkeys that are the most widespread primate genus, ranging from Japan to Afghanistan and, in the case of the barbary macaque (Macaca sylvanus), to North Africa and Southern Europe. Twenty-three macaque species are currently recognized, including some of the monkeys best known to non-zoologists, such as the rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta), and the barbary macaque, a colony of which lives on the Rock of Gibraltar. Although several species lack tails and their common names therefore r