Wild bonnet, long-tailed, and rhesus macaques are trapped and taken for medical research in laboratories (with female long-tailed macaques taken to breeding facilities and males exported to other countries to be used for research). Some macaques who are deemed “problems” are released from laboratories into forests, which threaten wild populations.

Various macaque species are also traded and kept as exotic pets. Male pig-tailed macaques, for instance, are used in Thailand to pick coconuts and may be sold for $1,000 USD, and other pig-tailed and bonnet macaques are forced to perform in shows. However, macaques are wholly unsuited to a captive lifestyle (link to PDF 1). Born Free works in Zambia, Malawi, and Ethiopia to help rescue primates from captive exploitation, rehabilitate them, and return them to the wild whenever possible. And, at the Born Free USA Primate Sanctuary, we provide a safe, permanent home to formerly captive macaques and other primates.

Born Free also advocates for legislation to protect macaques from harm, including the Captive Primate Safety Act and the Sanctuary Regulatory Fairness Act (the latter of which we assisted in drafting). Unfortunately, neither bill is currently active in Congress.

• Learn about how Born Free USA’s Primate Sanctuary gives formerly captive macaques a second chance at more natural lives.
• Learn about Born Free’s work to stop the keeping and exploitation of captive primates in the U.S.
• Read A Life Sentence (2006): Born Free USA’s investigation into the private ownership of exotic animals.
• Read Downloading Cruelty: An Investigation into the Online Sales of Exotic Pets in the U.S. (2016), Born Free USA’s report that provides an overview and analysis of the volume of online exotic pet sales domestically.

Habitat loss threatens the survival of long-tailed, stump-tailed, rhesus, and pig-tailed macaques. Human development and activity, including the building of roads, dams, power lines, and fisheries; logging and wood collection; and even deliberately-set fires lead to the fragmentation of habitat and loss/erosion of soil. Pig-tailed macaques are particularly affected by severe deforestation to obtain palm oil.

Long-tailed, stump-tailed, rhesus, pig-tailed, bonnet, and Japanese macaques are all threatened by hunting. Long-tailed, stump-tailed, and pig-tailed macaques are hunted and traded for food or sport; long-tailed and stump-tailed macaques are killed because they are viewed as pests; and stump-tailed and pig-tailed macaques are hunted and traded for traditional “medicine,” are killed for the local trade in their bones, and die due to accidental trapping. In fact, stump-tailed macaques were nearly hunted to extinction in India.

According to International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), though Japanese macaques do not face major threats at the species level, more than 10,000 Japanese macaque hybrids are killed each year to prevent damage to agriculture.

Learn about how Born Free campaigns against the illegal trade in bushmeat, including the live trade in infant primates »