Serendipitous discovery of white-cheeked macaque (Macaca leucogenys) from Arunachal Pradesh, India

Two most recently described macaque species; the white-cheeked macaque (Macaca leucogenys) and Arunachal macaque (Macaca munzala) were discovered from a single biodiversity hotspot, the Eastern Himalaya. We conducted surveys in the West Siang, Arunachal Pradesh, India and collected five faeces and two skin samples of macaques that on DNA analysis identified as white cheeked macaques. Subsequently, we undertook intensive field surveys and successfully captured white cheeked macaques in camera traps as well as found a captive juvenile individual during questionnaires from the same region. We report white-cheeked macaque from West Siang about 197 km away from China. Unfortunately, white-cheeked macaque has not been yet included in the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 of India and therefore, the present study laid foundation to promote field studies in Central Arunachal Pradesh to delineate distribution boundary and population size of white-cheeked macaque in Arunachal Pradesh.