A juvenile Japanese Macaque (Macaca fuscata), colloquially referred to as a Snow Monkey, grasps a twig, takes a nibble, and connects with its inner thoughts, Jigakudani Monkey Park, Nagano Prefecture, Japan.
The word 'Jigakudani' apparently translates to 'Valley of Hell', due to the abundance of steaming and spouting geothermal features, cold winters, and steep and sustained topographic relief. The fact that these primates are able to call such difficult country 'home', and were evolutionarily able to survive the winter unaided but by their wits, suggests something of their character. These remarkable little beings are also over twice as strong as an adult human male at maturity. This primate lives further north and survives colder temperatures than all other primates save one - us, Homo sapiens.
In modern times, the troop that lives at the Jigakudani Onsen, known for its affinity for the warm pools in the dead of winter, has discovered a new and less fraught way of making it through the hard, food-less and bitter cold season. This troop has found that if it can basically ignore humans and their cameras and cell phones, it will be fed by Park employees enough to comfortably make it through the winter. The menu? Apples, barley, daikon, carrots, etc. In addition, if the Wise Primate tourists can learn to not disrespectfully touch (would you want to be groped by monkeys? No, probably not), avoid bringing food out into the open, and avoid carrying plastic bags (which these monkeys associate with food), all will be well, and you will be allowed to photograph primates in the wild without fear of inter-species conflict. In turn, the monkeys remain relaxed enough to bathe, squabble, groom, nurse, defecate, and so on, although doing so with a huge crowd of Wise Primate gawkers, selfie-takers, photographers, and general human doofuses.
I came away after spending several hours with our monkey hosts with a sense of appreciation. Appreciation for the way that different animal species can work together to get their needs met in a world that requires teamwork to survive. Our needs: To feel a connection to more than just our own kind, which not that long ago was the only way to live. Their needs: To make it through the forbidding winter while keeping the newest born alive. I also came to the slow appreciation of how useless zoos could become if we, the Wise People, could learn to not jail our kindred species quite the way that we have. What if we created vibrant ecosystems for them to live in? And we could come visit them because they'd learn eventually that they could trust us, because we had finally learned to become trustworthy.
I hope to get caught up with people's work soon! It's been too long... In addition to traveling, I also was paid a visit by infectious bacterially-driven gastro-intestinal distress for the week after we returned. I felt truly as magical as the image that conjures. Adding jet lag and having to go back to work, it was quite a week. Yep, still first world problems.
