Macaca munzala: a new species from Western Arunachal Pradesh, Northeastern India

Sinha, Anindya and Datta, Aparajita and Madhusudan, MD and Mishra, Charudutt (2005) Macaca munzala: a new species from Western Arunachal Pradesh, Northeastern India. International Journal of Primatology, 26 (4). pp. 977-989. ISSN 1573-8604

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Abstract: Macaca, comprising 20 well-characterized species, represents the largest and one of the most ecologically and socially diverse of all the nonhuman primate genera. We report the discovery of a macaque that is new to science from the high altitudes of western Arunachal Pradesh, a biodiversity-rich state in northeastern India. We propose the scientific name Macaca munzala and the vernacular name Arunachal macaque for the species. It shares morphological characteristics independently with the Assamese macaque (Macaca assamensis) and with the Tibetan macaque M. thibetana; like them, it appears to belong to the sinica species-group of the genus. However, the species is distinctive in relative tail length, which is intermediate between those of Tibetan and Western Assamese macaques, the subspecies with which it is sympatric. It is also unique in its altitudinal distribution, occurring largely at altitudes between 2000 and 3500 m. We provide a morphological characterization of the species, report preliminary data on its field biology and discuss possible taxonomic identity in relation to the other closely-related species of Macaca.
Item Type: Journal Paper
Additional Information: Copyright belongs to the publisher
Keywords: Arunachal macaque, Macaca munzala, Macaca assamensis, Macaca thibetana, sinica species-group, Arunachal Pradesh, India.
Subjects: School of Natural and Engineering Sciences > Animal Behaviour
Doctoral Programme > PhD Scholar Publications
Divisions: Schools > Natural Sciences and Engineering
Date Deposited: 29 Nov 2013 10:03
Last Modified: 29 Jun 2021 17:57
Official URL: http://link.springer.com/journal/10764
Related URLs:
    Funders: UNSPECIFIED
    Projects: UNSPECIFIED
    DOI: 10.1007/s10764-005-5333-3
    URI: http://eprints.nias.res.in/id/eprint/406

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