I fall more and more in love with Indonesia at every turn. I am by no means an expert on it, (not yet anyway) just someone who dreams of living the rest of their life in the jungles of Borneo. It seems every time I fall in love with a new species they are close neighbors of the orangutans, whether it be the beautiful hornbills (O.A.P. to come), or even the ever-curious black crested macaque.

I sat down to watch a documentary on Youtube this morning, and I will admit, I was planning to turn it on for maybe five, ten minutes tops, and instead watched the entire hour long program. Now I know not everyone has the time to sit and watch an hour long program so I’ve written down the times of some scenes I particularly liked:

7:05 – A cute potential GIF of a macaque dozing in a tree and almost falling out

11:10 – Fantastic slow motion footage of some macaques jumping over a stream

38:00 – First time tree-top study

41:30 – Children singing about monkeys

48:00 – The premier of the movie in the town closest to the macaque troop shown in Bahasa Indonesia, a truly beautiful scene and you should definitely watch from here to the end

So you want to know a little bit more about the black crested macaque, also known as the celebes black macaque? These guys live in patriarchal groups ranging in size from 5 to 25, with one dominant male. They have a bright orange bottom, that does swell during mating time, which contrasts nicely with their completely black coat and skin. These guys feed on fruits, seed, flowers, bird eggs, and even small vertebrates like birds, frogs or lizards. These guys are in fact monkeys, but don’t really follow that rule “if it doesn’t have a tail it must be an ape,” because from first glance it looks as though they don’t have tails, when in fact they are just little nubs.

THe celebes black macaque was just recently upgraded from endangered to critically endangered by the IUCN Red List. This is due to habitat loss and hunting as they are considered a delicacy to eat.

There is a very large population of introduced black macaques numbering over 100,000 individuals, but it is not counted when IUCN looks at the population because they are considered a pest species and an introduced threat to Bacan Island. There are actually little more than 2,000 individuals left in their natural habitat.

What I love about these guys is their eyes. They have such a mischievous and intelligent look about them, not to mention just how beautiful they are. So give a little more attention to the all of the other primates out there and lets not forget about the black crested macaque.