Japanese Macaque

Macaca fuscata · Mammal

Japanese Macaque
Young Japanese macaque in the mountains of Nagano · Frank Schulenburg, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

The snow monkey, Japan's only native monkey, with brownish-grey fur, a pinkish-red face and a stump of a tail; no other primate but man lives farther north or in a colder climate. Its troops live in the forests of Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu and smaller islands, from subtropical woods in the south to subarctic mountain forest in the north. Some bathe together in hot springs: at Jigokudani they come down to the springs in winter to warm up, and the bath lowers their stress. Hunting it was banned in 1947; since then it has become a major crop pest that climbs ordinary fences and soon ignores scarecrows, over 20,000 are culled each year, and in 2022 at least 50 people were attacked in the city of Yamaguchi.

Danger
Dangerous if cornered
How it is met
In families, by day
Size
Small
In winter
Active in winter

Where it lives

Temperate Forest, Temperate Conifer Forest, Spring

Sources

Open it in Biomes — MGS Toolbox