Watch the video: Unique shots – these monkeys go fishing for survival.
What you see here are one-off shots. A Japanese macaque, also known as a snow monkey, meticulously searches for brown trout and other prey in the highland valley of Kamikochi.
Japanese macaques usually feed on bamboo leaves and the bark of woody plants. But the Japanese Alps are a cold and harsh environment in winter. Especially at this time of the year, the Japanese macaques are endangered by lack of food.
By adding valuable animal protein to their diet, snow monkeys can survive in winter when food resources are scarce.
The fact that monkeys eat fish was more of a coincidence. Not so with the Japanese macaques: The frequency with which a research team was able to detect fish DNA in the animals’ feces suggested that they do not only feed on dead or dying fish opportunistically.
Researchers from Shinshu University and the University of Birmingham have now documented techniques used by Japanese macaques to catch swimming fish. For this purpose, the primates were observed with the help of infrared sensor cameras, among other things.
In a report in Scientific Reports, the research team describes for the first time how the macaques’ novel foraging behaviors evolved.
The snow monkeys look for fish or other creatures under stones in the riverbed. If you hear a fish splash or even see it, try to catch it with one or both hands and then bite. It can also happen that the snow monkeys stand upright on two legs.
Japanese macaques are generally considered remarkable primates. In order to survive in the harsh winter, it sometimes happens that the animals visit hot springs to bathe there.