LEARN ABOUT MACAQUES
Learn about macaques
Macaques are monkeys that belong to the genus (group of species) Macaca. There are many different genera (the plural of genus) of monkeys and other primates across Asia. All monkeys have certain characteristics in common, but macaques have a lot more in common with each other than they do with other Asian monkeys. For example, they all have cheek pouches, in which they can carry and store food for later!
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Some macaque species are easy to distinguish, but others are quite hard to tell apart. Surprisingly, exactly how many different macaque species there are is a matter of debate, and occasionally changes. For example, some call the Buton macaque a subspecies of the booted macaque, but others think that these are two distinct species. In May 2022, a brand new macaque species, the Sela macaque, was described.
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All macaque species but one are native to some part of Asia. The Barbary macaque is a North African monkey.
Click on the boxes below to learn more about each macaque species. We use the IUCN Red List as our guide. From there, you can visit each species’ Red List entry. For more further information about macaques please browse our bibliography & other resources pages.