Which macaque species lives wild on Mauritius and is widely used in biomedical research?

The macaque species living wild on Mauritius and widely used in biomedical research is the crab-eating macaque.

Also called the long-tailed macaque or cynomolgus macaque, it is Macaca fascicularis. The animals on Mauritius are not native to the island: people introduced them, probably from Southeast Asia, during the late 16th or early 17th century. They established free-living populations and adapted well to forests, plantations, and other disturbed habitats.

This species became important in biomedical research because it shares many physiological features with humans and can be bred in large managed colonies. Mauritian macaques have consequently been used in research involving infectious disease, neuroscience, reproduction, and vaccines. The research trade is controversial, particularly because wild populations and captive-breeding operations raise animal-welfare and conservation concerns.

The name “crab-eating” is also misleading: crabs are part of its diet, but the macaque eats fruit, seeds, leaves, insects, and many other foods. It is not the rhesus macaque, which is a different species, Macaca mulatta. Mauritius is therefore a notable example of an introduced population becoming central to both island ecology and biomedical supply chains.