Diet
Crab-eating macaques typically do not consume crabs; rather, they 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. Although the species is ecologically well-adapted and poses no threat to population stability of prey species in its native range, in areas where the crab-eating macaque is not native, it can pose a substantial threat to biodiversity.
The crab-eating macaque can become a synanthrope, living off human resources. They are known to feed in cultivated fields on young dry rice, cassava leaves, rubber fruit, taro plants, coconuts, mangos and other crops, often causing significant losses to local farmers. In villages, towns, and cities, they frequently take food from garbage cans and refuse piles. The species can become unafraid of humans in these conditions, which can lead to macaques directly taking food from people, both passively and aggressively.
In Thailand and Myanmar, long-tailed macaques use stone tools to open nuts, oysters and other bivalves, and various types of sea snails (nerites, muricids, trochids, etc.) along the Andaman sea coast and offshore islands.
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