A debate over the conservation status of the long-tailed macaque has raged in recent years, triggered by an International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List assessment that found the species to be endangered

An IUCN committee delivered a decision on the issue on 24 June, confirming that existing evidence suggests the species does have this dire conservation status. 

The ruling came after recent analysis indicated that the overall population of long-tailed macaques in their native range may have dropped by 80 percent in the last few decades.

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Featured image via Thai National Parks / Flickr, cropped to 1020×616, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0