Macaques in GURPS
Macaca sp.
Macaques are widespread monkeys found in southern Asia, Japan, and north Africa. They are the only primate native to Europe (by a technicality - barbary macaques are found on the island of Gibralter). Macaques are all good climbers, and many are strong swimmers. These monkeys are omnivorous, and will eat fruit, leaves, flowers, shoots, buds, roots, nuts, mushrooms, insects, shellfish, and small vertebrates.
They are active during the day.
Macaques live in groups, and have elaborate social systems with strict dominance hierarchies. usually, there are two parallel hierarchies - one for the females and their young, and one for the males. The groups are matrilineal and matrilocal - the females stay with their groups and have their status within the group determined by the status of their mother. Males migrate out of their birth group and join another when they reach sexual maturity. Females are organized by family, with high ranking families getting the best food and best spots. They actively defend their status, and keep down social climbers and upstarts, violently if necessary. Male status is determined by senority or by strength and fighting ability. Males may form coalitions for the mutual benefit of the conspirators, allowing them to gain strength and status by their numbers. Social bonds are maintained by grooming.
Macaques often become a nuisance when they raid human crops, or when they start living in villages or cities and steal food or knock over garbage cans. In many places, these monkeys are considered sacred and harming them is forbidden and illegal. Elsewhere, they may be regularly culled to keep their populations within manageable limits.
The more widespread and well-known macaques are listed below. There are many other species, often with populations restricted to small islands.
- Rhesus macaques Macaca mulatta are found in south-east Asia from India to China. Feral colonies have established themselves in parts of Florida and islands off South Carolina. They live in a wide variety of habitats, including in cities and villages. They have red skin exposed on their face and chest and pale tan and yellow fur. These primates are commonly used as a model for humans in scientific experiments and are consequently found in laboratory settings worldwide.
- Japanese macaques Macaca fuscata have red faces with long fluffy fur ranging from gray to brown in color. They are native to Japanese forests. Often called snow monkeys, Japanese macaques are adapted to survive harsh winters. Famously, some populations rest in hot springs during winter. They often enter Japanese cities and make nuisances of themselves.
- Barbary macaques Macaca sylvanus are tawny monkeys with pink muzzles and no tail from North Africa. They live in dry forests.
- Lion-tailed macaques Macaca silenus are macaques of the jungle canopy in southern India. They have dark fur with a bushy gray beard that extends up to their eyebrows. the muzzle is gray colored and bare of fur. Their tail has a tuft at the end.
- Pig-tailed macaques Macaca nemestrina and Macaca leonina are found in south-east Asia from Burma through Thailand and Indochina, south through peninsular Malaysia and into the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. They are golden brown colored monkeys with bare orange faces, hands, and feet. The short tail is held erect at the base when on all fours but quickly droops back down again. Pig-tailed macaques love the water. They mainly forage on the ground although they are skilled climbers.
- Crab-eating macaques Macaca fascicularis, despite their name, are generalist foragers like all other macaques - their diet is not restricted to crabs. They inhabit the jungles of Burma, Thailand, Indochina, mainland and peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo, the Philippenes, Java, Flores, Sumba, and Timor. These monkeys are skilled swimmers, and often live in mangrove forests where they may spend much of their time foraging underwater. These monkeys are often found in villages and cities. They have gray fur with exposed pink faces and chests, with bushy moustaches on their upper lip.
- Stump-tailed macaques Macaca arctoides are found in mountain jungles on the southern edge of China with Burma and Thailand and into eastern Indochina and the isthmus that connects mainland to peninsular Malaysia. They are not particularly agile climbers compared to other monkeys. They are gray to golden brown with bare pink faces, hands, and feet with red patches around the eyes.
- Bonnet macaques Macaca radiata live in south India. They have bare red faces and ears with silver-gray fur. They live in jungle and dry forest, and often live in villages or cities. When resting, they gather in a huddle.
- Assam macaques Macaca assamensis live in forests on the mountains between China and its southern neighbors, from India to Indochina. They have golden fur on their limbs, head, and back and much lighter fur on their underside. Their faces are bare and red.
- Tibetan macaques Macaca thibetana are found in high altitude subtropical forests in south-east China. They have golden-brown fur with bare noses, chins, and eyes and a spectacular moustache of fur around their nose and upper lip.
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