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Rhesus Macaque
India's most familiar monkey — the bold, pink-faced macaque of temples, towns and roadsides across the north.
How to spot it
A sturdy brown monkey with a distinctive pink face and rump and a medium-length tail. It is stockier and more thickset than the slender grey langur, and its fur is a sandier brown.
Where it lives
Extraordinarily adaptable — forests, farmland, temples, railway stations, towns and cities across northern and central India and much of Asia. It lives happily alongside people, which is both its strength and the source of conflict.
What it eats
An omnivore that eats almost anything — fruit, seeds, leaves, insects, and near people, crops, handouts and raided food. That flexible diet is a big reason it thrives where other wildlife cannot.
Behaviour & life
Lives in large troops with a clear pecking order, full of grooming, play and squabbles. Intelligent and quick to learn, it has grown bold around humans. It is the monkey whose blood gave the "Rhesus" (Rh) factor its name.
In India
Classed as Least Concern and one of the country's most numerous wild mammals. Culturally tied to Hanuman and often fed at temples, urban troops can turn into a nuisance — the real task is managing close contact, not saving the species.
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