The long-tailed macaque is also known as the crab-eating macaque and in laboratories, where it appears to be used extensively, it is known as the cynomolgus monkey. There are ten subspecies, but it appears that most subspecies are limited to smaller islands, although I did find some real differences in appearance among the many we saw in Indonesia.
It is found through most of Southeast Asia from southeastern Bangladesh south through the Malay Peninsula, Singapore, the Philippines, and in Indonesia, Sumatra, Borneo, Java and the Lesser Sunda Islands. It is also an invasive species in many areas and deemed a pest. So I am quite surprised to find that the IUCN rates it as endangered (per Wikipedia, but I see on the IUCN website that it deals with several different subspecies and rates them differently).
Males (11 to 20 pounds) are larger than females (6.6 to 13.2 pounds). The tail (16 to 26 inches) is longer than the body (15 to 22 inches) which it uses for balance when it jumps long distances (Wikipedia says up to 16 feet, but I'm sure I saw them jump farther in Tangkahan, Sumatra). Its upperparts are dark brown with golden brown tips, the underparts are light gray and it has a dark brown/gray tail. They have backwards-directed crown hairs that sometimes create short crests in the middle. Its skin is black on its feet and ears and grayish/pink on the muzzle. Males have a mustache and cheek whiskers while females only have cheek whiskers.
It was the most common mammal we saw, and maybe the most common animal. In Tangkahan, Sumatra, we saw them jumping across the Bamboo River from tree to tree.
Outside Bukit Lawang, Sumatra, in Gunung Leuser NP, we saw them a number of times. I got quite close to one standing on a tree with orangutans and Thomas's leaf monkeys nearby and relatively near our hotel we saw a bunch of them, one standing on a nearby tree stump.
In Borneo, in Tanjung Puting NP, we saw them inter-mixed with proboscis monkeys along the side of the Sekonyer River.
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| Long-tailed macaque with porboscis monkey behind it. |
At Camp 2, Ponkok Tanggui, we encountered a number of them on and on trees alongside the board walk. I apparently stared at one in a tree, which they don't like, and it aggressively jumped over my head across the boardwalk about four times, screaming as it did so. Our guide, Sam, put up his pack to protect my head from getting landed on.
In Bali we went to several Hindu temples where they were everywhere. We visited the Uluwatu Temple where they were everywhere. We saw them mating, stealing cell phones and other things, including water bottles, where they would put the bottles up to their mouths and drink the water. I also was warned by a stranger as I was leaning against a sea wall that I had one behind me on the wall about to steal my phone out of my shirt pocket.
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| Statues to the monkeys. |
Our second time in Bali we visited the Ubud monkey forest and my notes indicate there are 700 living there (and that seems like an undercount). Judy took lots of photos and I'm not finding any of my few right now.
On Rinca Island we saw them among mangroves searching for and eating crabs. A recent study showed that they make up 20.7% of the Komodo dragon diet, second only to the rusa deer which make up 58.6% of the dragon diet.
I don't recall specifically seeing any on Komodo Island, but we'd seen so many by that time that I was probably inured to them.
The sheer numbers and locations for these monkeys really is amazing. They seem to be part of every area we visited outside the cities. One of my favorite events on the trip was watching that angry monkey flying over your head numerous times. Who knew you shouldn't look a monkey in the eyes? We did see some signs in Bali to that effect, but it was too late by then.
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