Ayerani qanar

The Ayerani qanar, also known as the mangrove qanar, is a primate native to Southeast Tarsis. It has a long history living aside humans, and has alternately been seen as an agricultural pest and a mischievous neighbor, and more recently, the subject of medical experiments. The macaque lives in matrilineal social groups of up to eight individuals dominated by females. Male members of the group leave when they reach puberty. It is an opportunistic omnivore and has been documented using tools to obtain food in Ayeran and Yinguo.

The Ayerani qanar is a known invasive species and a threat to biodiversity in several locations, including Abayad and Katamur. The significant overlap in macaque and human living space has resulted in habitat loss, synanthropic living, and inter and intraspecies conflicts over food and resources.

Etymology
Qanar comes from the Imbu word qanarad, which means monkey or ape. In Ayeran and across the region, they are sometimes known generically as arek, possibly because of their high-pitched cries. The Ayerani qanar has several common names. It is often referred to as the long-tailed qanar due to its tail, longer than the rest of its body. Its name refers to the country that Abayadis first encountered the animals, often taking part in trading missions sailing east. In Yinguo, the species is sometimes referred to as clam-eating monkeys, because it often uses tools to crack open the hard outsides of shellfish and eat their insides.

Description
The body of an adult, which varies among subspecies, is 38-55 cm with relatively short arms and legs. Males and considerably larger than females, weighing 5-9 kg compared to 3-6 kg for females. The tail is longer than the body, typically 40-65 cm, used for balance when they jump distances up to 5 m. The upper parts of their bodies are dark brown, with light golden brown tips. The under parts are light gray with a dark gray/brown tail. The qanar have backwards-directed crown hairs which sometimes form short crests on the midline. Their skin is black on their feet and eats, whereas the skin on the muzzle is a light grayish pink color. The eyelids often have prominent white markings, with similar marks sometimes found on the ears. Males have characteristic mustache and cheek whiskers, while females only have cheek whiskers. Both sexes have a cheek pouch used to store food while foraging, while females show no perineal swelling.

Group living
Qanar live in social groups containing three to twenty females, their offspring, and one or many males. Groups usually have fewer males than females. In social groups, a clear dominance hierarchy is seen among females. These ranks remain stable throughout the female’s lifetime and can also be sustained through generations of matrilines. Females have their highest birth rates around 10 years of age and completely stop bearing young by 24. Social groups are female-bonded, meaning that males disperse at the time of puberty to find other groups. Thus, group relatedness on average appears to be lower compared to matrilines. More difference in relatedness occurs when comparing high-ranking lineages to lower ranking ones, with higher ranking individuals being more closely related to one another. Additionally, groups of dispersing males born into the same social groups display a range of relatedness, at times appearing to be brothers, while at other times appearing to be unrelated.

In addition to the matrilineal dominance hierarchy, male dominance ranking can also be found. Alpha males have a higher frequency of mating compared to lower-ranking counterparts. Increased success is partially due to increased access to females, and also due to female preference of alpha males during periods of maximum fertility. Though females have a preference for alpha males, they do display promiscuous behavior. Through this behavior, females risk helping to rear a non alpha offspring, yet benefit in several ways. First, a decreased value is placed on one single copulation, and the risk of infanticide is decreased due to uncertainty of paternity. Increasing group size leads to increased competition and energy spent trying to forage for resources, and in particular, food. Further, social tensions build and the prevalence of tension-reducing interactions like social grooming fall with larger groups. Thus, group living appears to be maintained solely due to the safety against predation.

Reproduction and diet
After a gestation period of 165-200 days, the female gives birth to one infant. The infant’s weight at birth is around 320 g. Infants are born with black fur which turns into a gray or reddish brown after three months of age. This natal coat indicates to others the infant’s status, and group members treat infants with care and rush to their defense when distressed. Transient males sometimes kill infants who are not their won in order to shorten interbirth intervals. A young juvenile stays mainly with its mother and relatives. As male juveniles get older, they becomes more peripheral to the group, playing together and forming crucial bonds that serve them when they leave the natal group. Males emigrating with a partner are more successful than those that leave alone. Young females stay with the group and become incorporated into the matriline into which they were born. Males groom females for insects and parasites to increase the chance of mating.

Ayerani qanar are opportunistic omnivores, eating a variety of animals and plants. Although fruits and seeds make up 60-90% of their diet, they also eat leaves, flowers, roots, and bark. They sometimes prey on vertebrates (including bird chicks, nesting female birds, lizards, frogs, and fish), invertebrates, and bird eggs. In Ayeran and elsewhere, many groups have become proficient swimmers and divers for crabs and other crustaceans in mangrove swamps. Although the species is ecologically well-adapted and poses no threat to population stability of prey species in its native range, in areas where it has been introduced, the qanar can pose a substantial threat to biodiversity. Some believe that the species is partially responsible for the extinction of forest birds by threatening critical breeding areas and eating the eggs and chicks of endangered forest birds. The primates can also become a synanthrope, living off of human resources. They are known to feed in cultivated fields on young dry rice, cassava leaves, rubber fruit, taro, coconuts, mangos, and other crops, often causing significant losses to local farmers. They also frequently dig through garbage, and become quite unafraid of humans under these conditions, which can result in them taking good directly from people, both passively and aggressively.

Tool use
In Yinguo, qanar have been observed using stone tools to open nuts, oysters, and other bivalves, and various types of sea snails. Another instance of tool use is washing and rubbing foods such as sweet potatoes, cassava roots, and papaya leaves before consumption. Qanar either soak these foods in water or rub them through their hands, as if to clean them. They also peel sweet potatoes, using their incisors and canine teeth. Adolescents appear to acquire these behaviors by observational learning of older individuals.

Distribution and habitat
The Ayerani qanar lives in a wide variety of habitats, including primarily lowland rainforests, disturbed and secondary rainforests, shrubland, and riverine and coastal forests of palms and mangrove. They also adjust easily to human settlements, and are regarded as pests around farms and villages. They typically prefer disturbed habitats and forest periphery. The native range of the species includes most of Southeast Tarsis, although it has been introduced to numerous other locations.

Introduced range
The Ayerani qanar is an introduced alien species in several countries, including Abayad, Adwa, Zhenia, Kapuku, Dhamila, and Katamur, among others. Where it is not a native species, particularly on island ecosystems whose species often evolved in isolation from large or intelligent predators, it is a documented threat to many native species.

Relationship with humans
Ayerani qanar extensively overlap with humans across their range in Southeast Tarsis. Consequently, they live together in numerous locations. Many of these are characterized by conflict as a result of habitat loss and competition over food and space. Humans and qanar have shared environments since prehistoric times, and both tend to frequent forest and river edge habitats. Generally, the primates were introduced to new areas by sailors and merchants (mainly from Abayad) who bought them somewhere within their home range before releasing them. They commonly feed on sugarcane and other crops, affecting agriculture and livelihoods, and can be aggressive.

They have also developed a reputation for actively stealing humans’ items such as cameras, eyeglasses, or hats, then refusing to return the stolen goods until being given food as ransom. This unique form of kleptoparasitism (robbing and bartering) has primarily been observed in small groups living near larger human settlements, especially tourist-heavy ones. This suggests that it is a learned behavior within social groups, in response to realizing that humans would trade food for their possessions back.