Lion-tailed monkey

It is an animal of the family Cercopithecidae in the order Primates of the class Mammalia. It lives in the evergreen forests of southwestern India. Its body is black, with a mane of grey hair around its face and a tuft of hair at the tip of its tail. This mane and tail are the origin of its Japanese name. Its body length is 50 cm, its tail length 30 cm, and it weighs 6 kg. It is the most arboreal of the macaques, and it feeds mainly on fruit and also on insect larvae. It forms multi-male groups of about 20 individuals, and the group has a range of about 2 square kilometers. Although its current distribution is far removed from that of the pig-tailed macaque M. nemestrina , which lives in Southeast Asia, it is closely related in lineage, and both retain vestiges of older types of the macaque genus.

[Kenji Kawanaka]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

哺乳(ほにゅう)綱霊長目オナガザル科の動物。インド南西部の常緑樹林帯にすむ。体毛は黒く、顔の周囲には灰色の毛がたてがみ状に生え、尾の先端に房毛がある。このたてがみと尾が和名の由来。体長50センチメートル、尾長30センチメートル、体重は6キログラムになる。マカック属のなかではもっとも樹上性の傾向が強く、果実を主食にし、昆虫の幼虫も食べる。20頭ぐらいの複雄群をつくり、群れは2平方キロメートルぐらいの遊動域をもつ。東南アジアにすむブタオザルM. nemestrinaとは、現在の分布域は遠く離れているが、系統的には近縁で、ともにマカック属の古いタイプの名残(なごり)をとどめている。

［川中健二］

出典　小学館　日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について　情報 | 凡例