Macaque Macaque The macaques ( or ) constitute a genus (Macaca) of Old World monkeys of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. The 23 species of macaques are distributed throughout Asia, North Africa and (in one instance) Gibraltar. Macaques are principally frugivorous, although their diet also includes seeds, leaves, flowers, and tree bark, and some, such as the crab-eating macaque, subsist on a diet of invertebrates and occasionally small vertebrates. Macaques are found in a variety of habitats throughout the Asian continent, and are extremely adaptable. All macaque social groups are arranged around dominant, matriarchal females. They also have learned to live with humans,
Rhesus macaque in space and return alive. On 25 October 1999, the rhesus macaque became the first cloned primate with the birth of Tetra. January 2001 had the birth of ANDi, the first transgenic primate; ANDi carries foreign genes originally from a jellyfish. Though most studies of the rhesus macaque are from various locations in northern India, some knowledge of the natural behavior of the species comes from studies carried out on a colony established by the Caribbean Primate Research Center of the University of Puerto Rico on the island of Cayo Santiago, off Puerto Rico. No predators are on the island,