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Source: The post is based on the article “Cash-strapped Sri Lanka considers exporting 1 lakh endangered monkeys to China” published in Telegraph on 17th April 2023
What is the News?
Cash-strapped Sri Lanka is exploring the possibility of exporting 1,00,000 endangered Toque Macaque monkeys to China, one of its largest bilateral lenders.
What is Toque Macaque?
It is a reddish-brown-coloured Old World monkey.
It is native and endemic exclusively to Sri Lanka where it is locally known as the ”rilewa” or ”rilawa”.
They generally occupy three types of habitat, hence can be divided into three subspecies. These are: 1) Common toque macaque occurring in dry habitat, 2) Pale-fronted toque macaque inhabiting wet areas and 3) Hill-zone toque macaque, found at high elevations.
Features: The most characteristic feature is the toque-like swirl of hair on its head top. These physiological characteristics vary greatly, depending on climatic conditions.
– They exhibit sexual dimorphism: males are physically larger than females, and males are fitted with larger canine teeth.
IUCN Status: Endangered
