From Forest Royalty to Parking Lot Bandits: The Fall of the Macaques

I was five when a macaque came for my ice cream—and I’ve been wary ever since. But now I know better. They’re not just cheeky thieves with terrifying canines. They’re swimmers, tool-users, line-enforcers, and misunderstood geniuses. And while we laugh at their antics on roadsides and temple steps, they’re quietly vanishing from the forests where they belong. The long-tailed macaque is now endangered, not because of who they are, but because of what we keep doing.