Macaques live in large groups with up to 80 monkeys. There is a group hierarchy with a dominant male in charge of the rest. He shows this at times by yawning very high and
showing his large canine teeth.
In their search for food, macaques have found that farmers sometimes shoot at them to protect their fields. Therefore, small groups of monkeys sneak in while others stand guard
to warn them if people come.
The macaques at Odense ZOO are of the species called southern pig-tailed macaques. Our group is one of the biggest in Europe. We feed them oatmeal which they must search for in the saw dust. This mimics their behaviour in the wild where the macaques search for grass seeds.