Long-Tailed or crab-eating Macaque (Macaca fascicularis)

Identification: Grey-brown to reddish-brown, always paler on the underparts. Cheek-whiskers often prominent. Infants blackish. Groups often detected by their calls, the most common being 'krrai'. Individuals tend to be less noisy than langurs when travelling through the tree canopy, but groups are more noisy.

Similar species: the Silver Langur, Presbytis Cristata,(often in the same habitat) is entirely dark (infants orange) and has a distinct crest of hairs on top of the head; the Pig-tailed Macaque, M. nemestrina, has a short tail.

Ecology & habitat: Active periodically from dawn until dark. Often travels in groups of 20 to 30 or more individuals containing 2-4 adult females and the remainder immatures. Usually only part of the group occupied an area of up to several tens of hectares, travelling from 150-1500 m daily. Unlike other monkeys, spends a large proportion of the time active in low trees and thick shrub. Common in coastal forests including mangrove and beach, and along rivers. Also around gardens, villages and plantations. Diet mostly ripe fruits and a wide array of animal material including insects, frogs' eggs, crabs and other coastal invertebrates. Sometimes a pest in commercial crops.

Distribution: Peninsular Burma, Thailand, and Malaysia, Southern Indochina, Philippines, Sumatra, Java and adjacent islands. Borneo : M.F. fascicularis, know throughout the lowlands, especially coastal regions, but up to 1300 m on some mountains.