Page 43 - Atlas Of The World's Strangest Animals

JAPANESE MACAQUE 43

Comparisons

Rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) – also known as Rhesus physical characteristics with their cousins.They’re a similar
macaques –are natives of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma, size, though less bulky. As their natural habitats are warmer,
China, northern India, Pakistan and Thailand. Like Japanese their fur is shorter and their tails are longer, being less prone
macaques, they are Old World monkeys and share many to frostbite.

Rhesus monkey Japanese macaque

even show symptoms of stress similar to those found in sand off the potatoes by dipping it into river water, rather
their human, city-dwelling counterparts. than brushing it off with her hands.The trick was quickly
learnt – and improved upon – by the rest of the troop.
Look and learn Later, some macaques started to dip their potatoes in sea
It’s thanks to macaques that scientists have begun to re- water.They would bite into them, then dip them in the
think their ideas about monkey ‘societies’.These intelligent water, then bite them again, presumably because the
primates enjoy an extremely complex social life, and it’s potatoes tested better that way!
one that is constantly changing and evolving.The bathing
macaques of Jigokudani are a case in point.
The springs in this region are natural, but it wasn’t until Japanese macaque habitats
1963 that a young female macaque, named Mukubili,
decided to try them out for herself.Although she was
initially tempted into the warm waters by some soybeans,
thrown in by keepers of the Park, she obviously liked the
experience. She came back again and again, and other
macaques eventually followed suit.Thanks to this one
incident, the lives of every member of the troop have now
changed irrevocably.They come down to the springs when
a gong rings to tell them that food is available.Although
they’re still wild animals, they’ve become so used to the
presence of tourists, that they’re quite happy to stay and be
observed.They’ve effectively become monkey celebrities!
Similar adaptive behaviour has been recorded by the
Japanese Primate Research Institute on the island of
Kojima.Again food (this time sweet potatoes) was used to
tempt the macaques into the open, where they could be
observed. One female, Imo, found that it was easier to get

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