10/21/2005: Baby stump-tailed Macaque

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Happy Friday! Don't remember where this one came from, but this is one of the really weird looking baby primates. When it grows up it won't look nearly so weird, but for now...



The hands are particularly haunting as they look so human. As adults, they look different:



Two interesting notes about the macaque. One, the total hilarity of their mating, from a site called Monekeyzone:

Dominant males copulate with high-ranking females throughout their estrus cycles. Mating lasts 12-20 minutes, after which partners remain attached and are often harassed by other members of the group. Of all the observed mating, 92% had some form of harassment. High-ranking males are the most likely to be harassed, usually by adult females and juvenile males and females. When low-ranking males mate, they are often interrupted by the dominant male; to avoid interruption, they mate while he is mating with another female. A male can copulate 10 times a day. Males and females make an orgasm face.

Two, turns out they go bald, and this led to the discovery of Minoxidil/Rogaine:

Like some human males, stumptail macaques become partially bald as they age. This process of balding is similar to male-pattern baldness seen in humans because hair loss starts at the forehead and advances toward the back of the skull over time, but unlike humans, this pattern is seen in both male and female stumptails (Uno et al. 1967). Researchers have studied balding in stumptail macaques and have developed treatments for baldness, namely minoxidil, or as it is commercially marketed, Rogaine (Uno 1986). Minoxidil was originally developed as a drug to treat high blood pressure, but one of the side effects identified was excessive hair growth. Testing of the drug on stumptail macaques revealed hair regrowth and maintenance of newly regrown areas on balding scalps (Uno 1986). By first testing its efficacy and safeness on nonhuman primates, researchers were able to develop the drug for human use.