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Macaca sinica
Considered endangered. The toque macaque (/tɒk məˈkæk/; Macaca sinica) is a reddish-brown-coloured Old World monkey endemic to Sri Lanka, where it is known as the rilewa or rilawa (Sinhala: රිළවා), (hence "rillow" in the Oxford English Dictionary). Its name refers to the whorl of hair at the crown of the head, compared to a brimless toque cap. As of 2008, IUCN listed toque macaque as endangered in their list due to habitat destruction and hunting, and also for taming for pets. With few patches of forests for survival, they engage to survive close to human habitation, giving a serious trouble for both the parties. Due to devastated eating of crop plants, humans always take precautions to avoid their entrance to the cultivation fields. This results killing by shot, trappings, and poisoning. Both subsp. aurifrons and sinica are kept as pets by various indigenous people for economic purposes. They were heavily used by both Sri Lanka Army and LTTE for their shooting practices in the recent past, but now prohibited.
rural tourist site. In the shadow of the Cave Temple/Golden Temple Buddhist Shrine, Dambulla featuring a 30 meter tall statue of the Buddha.
Spotted on Dec 5, 2014
Submitted on May 27, 2021
2 Comments
Thanks for the honor Machi. It gives me an exuse for a shout out to the spotting location of Sri Lanka. I was lucky enough to visit 5 times and have good friends and fond memories from there. Now there is an acute and growing emergency there due to the collapse of their currency and inability to procure food and medicine or anything else on international markets, leading to and further exasperated by a mandated and rushed, forced conversion to farming without fertilzer for which the farmers were not prepared. I wish the best for the future there and encourage anyone and everyone to try to find ways to help (e.g. the UN World Food Program is active there and accepts donations).
Your spotting has been nominated for the Spotting of the Week. The winner will be chosen by the Project Noah Rangers based on a combination of factors including: uniqueness of the shot, status of the organism (for example, rare or endangered), quality of the information provided in the habitat and description sections. There is a subjective element, of course; the spotting with the highest number of Ranger votes is chosen. Congratulations on being nominated!