Trivia question for Jun-10-2011

Olivia likes these guys ever since watching the Nat Geo channel TV series about them so she decided to feature them in her trivia.  These guys are ground dwelling primates that forages on a range of food, from crops to scraps and waste matter discarded by humans.

These primates are native to northern India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Burma, Thailand, Afghanistan, Vietnam, southern China, and some neighboring areas. They have the widest geographic ranges of any nonhuman primate, occupying a great diversity of altitudes throughout Central, South and Southeast Asia. Inhabiting arid, open areas.

So here are Olivia’s questions:  Tell us what type of primate this is and how they got their unusual name.  Also, a recent decline in population sizes across India and China has prompted trading controls to be enacted on the species.  Tell us why they are so highly sought after in that region.

Good Luck 😉

Answer:

Congratulations to Marco from the Czech Republic for being the first with the correct answer.  The primate we featured is the Rhesus Macaque.  The Rhesus macaque, also called the Rhesus monkey, is one of the best known species of Old World monkeys. It is listed as Least Concern in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in view of its wide distribution, presumed large population, and its tolerance of a broad range of habitats. Native to South, Central and Southeast Asia, troops of Macaca mulatta inhabit a great variety of habitats from grasslands to arid and forested areas, but also close to human settlements.

It has given its name to the Rhesus factor, one of the elements of a person’s blood group, by the discoverers of the factor, Karl Landsteiner and Alexander Wiener.  These guys are unfortunately often sought after by locals to support the high demand within the medical research industry.  Here is more on these clever primates:  Rhesus Macaque

Thanks for playing along 😉