A case report on ranging pattern of a solitary male macaque in urban area.

Information on the life histories of male macaques after leaving their natal troops is limited. A solitary male Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata), estimated to be 5 years old, appeared in the urban area of Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan, where no troops are distributed, in May 2023. Because the animal was habituated to and fed frequently on garden crops, it likely came from the western part of the prefecture, where multiple crop-feeding troops are distributed.

Diet-related factors strongly shaped the gut microbiota of Japanese macaques.

Although knowledge of the functions of the gut microbiome has increased greatly over the past few decades, our understanding of the mechanisms governing its ecology and evolution remains obscure. While host genetic distance is a strong predictor of the gut microbiome in large-scale studies and captive settings, its influence has not always been evident at finer taxonomic scales, especially when considering among the recently diverged animals in natural settings. Comparing the gut microbiome of 19 populations of Japanese macaques Macaca fuscata across the Japanese archipelago, we assessed the relative roles of host genetic distance, geographic distance and dietary factors in influencing the macaque gut microbiome.