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Macaca fuscata
Japanese Macaques (AKA: Japanese Snow Monkeys) enjoying some time in the onsen (hot spring) at Jigokundai Monkey Park, in Nagano, Japan. These monkeys live here all year long, but only go into the hot springs during the winter months when there is snow on the ground.
The Japanese macaque is the northernmost-living nonhuman primate. It is found on three of the four main Japanese islands: Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu.
The "Snow Monkey", is a terrestrial Old World monkey species that is native to Japan. They get their name "snow monkey" because they live in areas where snow covers the ground for months each year – no other nonhuman primate is more northern-living, nor lives in a colder climate
Spotted on Dec 30, 2018
Submitted on Dec 30, 2018
15 Comments
Congrats on a great spotting of the week.
SargonR's other images of these monkeys can now be seen in our Project Noah Worldwide user group. The full set is great!
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A great spotting. Congrats on your SOTW.
Thank you much for the SotW recognition. I hope everyone enjoyed these. I will upload the rest of the photos to the FaceBook page later so everyone can see the full set.
Great series SargonR,beautiful,congrats on the well deserved SOTW and thanks for sharing
Congratulations SargonR, among tough competition this beautiful series has been voted Spotting of the Week! These images even instilled a sense of well-being in our voting rangers.
"Iconic and unique in their behavior, these Japanese Macaques (Macaca fuscata) have been voted Spotting of the Week! Also known as snow monkeys, Japanese macaques are the most northerly species of non-human primates. Snow monkeys in the Jigokundai Monkey Park area (Nagano, Japan) were first observed bathing in outdoor hot springs in 1963. Research published last year in the journal Primates has shown that these macaques use hot spring bathing for thermoregulation during the winter months. Testing the animals’ feces for levels of glucocorticoid metabolites, a biological indicator of stress, researchers found that hot spring bathing also had a stress-reducing effect for these snow monkeys. Interestingly, the presence of numerous tourists at this spot does not affect stress hormone levels in this population of habituated macaques.
You can read all about it here: https://buff.ly/2GREdYQ "
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Wow stunning images. Thanks for sharing.
Maria dB, yes there were many people, but I think the weather kept it from being really crowded. I would guess there were around 30 other people there on this day.
Nice series! I saw a presentation by another photographer once about these primates and then he showed a photo of the people there to photograph them - there was a double line of dozens of photographers! Was that the case when you were there as well?
Great series of photos...Congratulations on the nomination.
Your spotting has been nominated for the Spotting of the Week. The winner will be chosen by the Project Noah Rangers based on a combination of factors including: uniqueness of the shot, status of the organism (for example, rare or endangered), quality of the information provided in the habitat and description sections. There is a subjective element, of course; the spotting with the highest number of Ranger votes is chosen. Congratulations on being nominated!
What an amazing series of images of these iconic animals... Happy New Year Sargon R!
Wonderful photos!!! :)
Some shots are iconic...never grow old...like these monkeys. Simply wonderful!
Awesome series Sargon!