Bonnet Macaque

[Praveen Siddannavar]

Kabini continues to amaze me - Our last morning drive at Kabini was full of excitement, two great natural history moments captured and I even had opportunity to film them 1) Changeable Hawk Eagle with a Kill. 2) Wild Dogs Mating and further plenty of alarm calls ensured that we all were kept on our toes right from start to finish during the two hours’ drive. Finally it was time to head back to the exit gate and from a distance we heard loud noise on the kemangundi road, we weren’t sure about the situation. After driving closer I noticed that a group of Bonnet Macaques (Red faced monkey) were being harassed by a dominant male, I was fortunate to make few image of this male. The male apart from being very aggressive, had some unusual and dangerous canines as seen in the image. He seemed restless and was chasing & attacking other monkeys in his group. Unfortunately we didn’t have the time to record the entire incident and had to leave.

The bonnet macaque is a macaque endemic to southern India. Its distribution is limited by the Indian Ocean on three sides and the Godavari and Tapti Rivers along with a related competing species of rhesus macaque in the north.
These macaques have a very wide range of gestures and behaviors which can be easily differentiated. 'Lip smacking' is one of the most common affiliative behavior, where one individual may open and close its mouth in rapid succession, with its tongue between its teeth and its lips pressing against each other, giving an audible sound. A 'grimace' is the most common gesture of fear or submission a subordinate shows to a dominant individual during aggressive encounters. It consists of pulling back its upper lip, showing its upper teeth. They also have distinct alarm calls for predators such as python and leopard.

The bonnet macaque, like other macaques, shares a linear dominance hierarchy; the 'alpha' male is the most dominant male of the troop, followed by a 'beta' male and a 'gamma' male, and so on according to their dominance. Males are usually dominant over females…

Camera - Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon f4 500mm lens
EXIF - ISO 800 Av 8 Tv 1/4000 sec EC -0.7, small crop
15th September 2013