Monkeys are worshipped in Asia. However their resemblance of rhesus monkeys to humans has become their undoing. To this day they are used for experiments. In the 1950s about 200,000 rhesus monkeys each year were exported from India to the USA for biological, medical and psychological reasons and even for cosmic space research. Already in 1940 Karl Landsteiner discovered the so called rhesus factor (Rh+ or Rh-) in their blood which also exists in human blood.
Category: Mammal
Sexually mature: ♀ at 3.5 years; ♂ at 4.5 years
gestation period: 135-194 days
food: fruits, seeds, buds, sprouts, roots, leaves, herbs, bast, invertebrates, small vertebrates, crops, waste
habitat: semi-deserts, forests in the tropical to temperate zone up to 3000m asl, human settlements
Danger: endangered
distribution area