Arunachal macaque Arunachal macaque The Arunachal macaque ("Macaca munzala"), a relatively large brown primate with a comparatively short tail, is a macaque native to Arunachal Pradesh in northeastern India. Its species name comes from "munzala" ("monkey of the deep forest") as it was called by the Dirang Monpa tribe. It was discovered as a new taxon in 1997 by the noted Indian primatologist Anwaruddin Choudhury, but he thought it to be a new subspecies of Tibetan (or Père David's) macaque. It was described as a new species in 2004, when a group of scientists from the Nature Conservation Foundation, India reported it.
Arunachal macaque and 3500 m above sea level, making it one of the highest-dwelling primates. It belongs to the "M. sinica" species-group of macaques, along with the Assamese macaque ("M. assamensis"), the Tibetan macaque ("M. thibetana"), the bonnet macaque ("M. radiata") and the toque macaque ("M. sinica"). The Arunachal macaque is apparently physically similar to the Assam and Tibetan macaques, while genetically closely related to the bonnet macaque of southern India. This is probably the result of convergent evolution, where organisms evolve similar physical features due to similar environmental selection pressure, while genetically they may have different origins. However, its full specific