New insights into the taxonomy of Macaca pagensis of the Mentawai Islands, sumatra

Although macaques (Macaca pagensis) have been known from the Mentawai Islands since the early twentieth century, none were known from one of these, Pulau Siberu, until the 1970s. The Siberut macaque was inadvertently given a scientific name, M. p. siberu by Fuentes and Olson (1995). Only two specimens are known of the Siberut macaque; a male originally described as a hybrid from Padang, Sumatra that lived in London Zoo until 1933, and a male that lived in Bristol Zoo until 1997. In this paper we describe in detail for the first time the Siberut macaque based largely on these two specimens. We compare the Siberut macaque with other species in the M. nemestrina group and find that it is morphologically very distinct. We conclude that the Siberut macaque is a distinct species, M. siberu.