ABSTRACT
Within the class Mammalia, obesity has been identified in a number of orders, including the Rodentia, the Carnivora (e.g., dogs, bears), the Artoidactyla (pigs, cattle), and the order Primates (which includes, for example, lemurs, monkeys, apes, and humans, a total of f200 primate species), as well as in other orders which include such mammals as the whale, walrus, manatee, hedgehog, and rhinoceros. Within the suborder Anthropoidea, obesity has been described in two of three superfamilies: Cercopithecoidea (Old World monkeys, including many species of macaques) and Hominoidea (including orangutans, chimpanzees and gorillas-with specimens of this last sometimes found to weigh >180 kg 400 lb). Obesity may also occur in the third superfamily Ceboidea (New World monkeys); however, to date it has not been well documented. Most commonly, within the genus Macaca, obesity has been described in the species Macaca fascicularis (cynomolgus monkeys), Macaca nigra (misnomered the Celebes ape), and most of all, in Macaca mulatta (rhesus monkeys)(1-3).
