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. 2022 Jul 8:11:e78169.
doi: 10.7554/eLife.78169.

The rhesus macaque as a success story of the Anthropocene

Eve B Cooper  1 , Lauren J N Brent  2 , Noah Snyder-Mackler  3 , Mewa Singh  4 , Asmita Sengupta  5   6 , Sunil Khatiwada  7 , Suchinda Malaivijitnond  8   9 , Zhou Qi Hai  10 , James P Higham  1
Affiliations

The rhesus macaque as a success story of the Anthropocene

Eve B Cooper et al. Elife. .

Abstract

Of all the non-human primate species studied by researchers, the rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) is likely the most widely used across biological disciplines. Rhesus macaques have thrived during the Anthropocene and now have the largest natural range of any non-human primate. They are highly social, exhibit marked genetic diversity, and display remarkable niche flexibility (which allows them to live in a range of habitats and survive on a variety of diets). These characteristics mean that rhesus macaques are well-suited for understanding the links between sociality, health and fitness, and also for investigating intra-specific variation, adaptation and other topics in evolutionary ecology.

Keywords: comparative genomics; ecology; evolutionary biology; model organism; natural history of model organisms; niche flexibility; primate; rhesus macaque; sociality.

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Conflict of interest statement

EC, LB, NS, MS, AS, SK, SM, ZQ, JH No competing interests declared

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Time-calibrated phylogenetic tree of the 24 macaque (Macaca) species based on molecular data.
The Macaca genus diverged from other members of the primate tribe Papionini approximately 7 million years ago. The position of the rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) is highlighted by the red box. Phylogeny constructed using TimeTree (Kumar et al., 2017).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Geographical range across South and South-East Asia of rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) and 9 other extant sister species in the Macaca genus.
The 10 species shown in different colors represent a complete monophyletic group, with the exception of Macaca leucogenys, which is missing because its complete range information is not yet known with high confidence. Rhesus macaques (blue shaded area) have the largest natural range of any non-human primate, which stretches from Afghanistan in the west, through Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and across a large swathe of China in the east. Figure based on ICUN Red List species range estimates.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.. The diets of rhesus macaques can include both natural and anthropogenic food sources.
Rhesus macaques are shown eating (A) Deciduous foliage in Buxa Tiger Reserve, West Bengal, India, (B) Conifer foliage in Shimla, India, (C) Wheat crop in an agricultural area of Himachal Pradesh, India, (D) A popsicle in Haridwar, India, (E) A candy bar in Shimla, India, (F) A tea bun in Buxa Tiger Reserve, West Bengal, India.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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