Baby Monkey Faces & Feeding Time

Baby monkeys, to me, are some of the cutest critters on the planet so I was really excited when I got to see them at the hot springs in Japan. The one to the left and on the left in the above pic was having fun soaking in the water until her little friend left. I caught her mid-holler when she was crying out. She carried on crying for quite a while until deciding her friend wasn't coming back. Then she just got out of the pool and ran off. That was just one of many instances of vocalizations I heard at the monkey park. It was raucous at one point during food distribution - monkeys chasing each other, fighting, shrieking, biting, wrestling, mounting — you name it.

Wild monkeys are provisioned in Japan. Provisioning, or giving the monkeys food, is a technique for getting monkeys to stick around close for closer, and longer, periods of observation. It's a much criticized technique in primatology because it distorts natural monkey behavior, i.e. creating situations that would otherwise not occur. Nevertheless, it is used because sometimes it is the only way to actually observe monkeys in the wild. Jane Goodall used the technique during her early observations of chimpanzees and was criticized for it, but it did help her gain the trust of the chimps and allowed her to accumulate a wealth of previously unknown knowledge of their behavior. Her observations are now widely accepted. Also, zoo and laboratory observations and studies continue to make up a good deal of research in primatology and they are surely a lot less ecologically valid. Anyways, enough primatology methodology talk - back to the monkeys!

During the winter in Japan, food is scarce for the snow monkeys. But, provisioning is not something done to keep the monkeys alive and fed during this time. They eat mostly bark and whatever leaves or winter shoots they scrounge up. Monkeys also bulk up in the months prior to winter and babies are born in advance enough to make it through the rough winter. Together, it's enough to get them through the lean months.

As I learned at the park, snow monkeys are provisioned with less desirable food than is available in the wild. So, sometimes during the fat months, monkeys don't even bother to come down for the easily available barley when the have berries in the forest.

Jigokudani Monkey Park: For watching snow monkeys bathe in hot springs!

A relatively young, probably female, snow monkey relaxes in the sulfurous natural hot springs in January at Jigokudani, Japan. The mountainous valley is part of the Joshin-Etsu Kogen National Park and is near Nagano, site of the 1998 Winter Olympics. The area gets plenty of snow during the winter and is quite cold, but the monkeys have adapted to the environment, growing thick coats during the harsh winter. They are the northernmost dwelling monkeys in the world and are native to Japan.

The area was difficult to get to. However, that did not stop throngs of tourists from being there. I think the vast majority of them arrived on tour buses. We took the Shinkansen (bullet train) from Tokyo to Nagano and then hitched a ride on a series of much, much slower trains to the town of Yudanaka. There, we caught a bus up to Kanbayashi Onsen after which we walked the 30 minutes to the entrance to the monkey park. It took 4 hours all told.

There was apparently a direct train we could have been on that goes more or less straight to Yudanaka, but we unfortunately ended up on about 4 different trains, having transfered from one train to another repeatedly — and spent about 45 minutes standing around for a train in the middle of nowhere at one point. It was super cold. And, the path to the monkey park began with a very steep slope that, being winter, was icy and very difficult to safely negotiate, especially coming down. So, if you plan to visit this monkey park at the best time of year (when the snow is falling) be prepared and carry a walking stick or crampons or something. And, be sure to catch the speedier, direct train to Yudanaka!

After all was said and done, the monkey park experience was well worth the effort. Once there, we got to watch monkeys swim, dive in, fight, groom and play until we just got too cold to stand it any longer. Standing near the hot spring kept me warmer, but it smelled strongly of sulfur and the rocky rim was covered with monkey poo. That didn't stop me from getting in close to snap some photos though!

Instead of elbowing my way into the crowd of photographers with huge camera lenses and expensive looking cameras, I bided my time and figured out the rhythm of the place. Once feeding time came, the monkeys cleared out of their swimming hole and so did all of the people. When I sensed that the monkeys were just about done eating, I headed for the poop-coated rocky edge of the hot springs and staked out a spot. Soon I was joined by the throng of cameras. You'd think Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were there skinny dipping!

The monkeys didn't mind the paparazzi presence at all.

My Own Snow Monkeys

True to form, newfies love water in whatever form it takes. Before we left for Japan, we got hit with a couple of big snow storms, one after the other — much to the newfies delight. Yuki, whose name means 'snow' in Japenese, really got a huge treat. We had trouble getting them to come back inside, and even when we did lure them in with treats, they whined at the back door ten minutes after refueling (read: gulping water and drooling it all over the kitchen floor).



I've had to clear out saved video on my hard drive to make room for photos from Japan, so that's why I'm using 'old' material!

Stepping Out into a Winterwonderland at 1 am

If I hadn't taken Her Royal Newfsance out at 1am, her squeaking would have woken up the guy who has to be up an hour early for the "early deadline."

To give the carriers time to deliver, the newspaper sets an early deadline for page production whenever it snows. I am up late anyway so I took Her Royal Whinyness out.

I was rewarded with getting to see the fresh snow blanketing everything in sight. I brought the camera out with me just in case I could get good pics with the flash despite the darkness of night. I didn't take enough pictures at the previous place we lived and I do miss the massive snowfalls there, so I couldn't resist documenting the strange weather here. I have lived in this place for a total of ten years and have never seen this much snow pile up so regularly.. except that one year in college. The snow, if it came at all, either didn't stick to the ground or happened in early January when all of us kids were on break.

I don't know about the snow here this month. It's weird, but nice so long as this is fleeting. I would be happier with hoar frost. But I will just have to accept that we don't really live in a zone 8 gardening area. I think it is closer to 6. Seven in some years. Not this one, however. Oh well. My poor little jasmine plant is most assuredly a goner.


Katy spun some cookies in the yard around my planter bed before doing her back hoe impersonation. Can she just leave those weeds alone? I guess not. She must unearth them. I can't really complain - my giant dog aerates the lawn and pulls weeds for me. That dog is woman's best friend.

Finally I close with a photo of the snow shoes I will not be wearing to the mountains this weekend. Do they suggest I didn't grown up here, but instead grew up in a place where this weather would be considered a heat wave for this time of year?!