00:00Meet the Oihara Tai, a team of around 50 part-time civil servants whose job is to chase off a
00:10community of macaque monkeys. Armed with bells, whistles and sticks to make lots of noise,
00:17the team tries to herd the animals further into the mountains, away from homes and crops in the
00:22village of Azumino. There used to be a clear boundary between the village and the mountains,
00:29but it gradually disappeared. Wild animals have increasingly been coming into the village
00:34where the food is tastier and more nutritious, but they're eating things they're not naturally
00:38supposed to. Michael Johnson has lived in Azumino for over a decade. The monkeys have raided his
00:44home four times. When they got in here, they opened this to get up to get grains and they
00:53had bite marks on it. They were all over the floor. They'd get into it and it would be on the floor.
00:58He says when he first moved here, he was excited about sharing his surroundings with the local
01:03wildlife. Now he carries a slingshot. When they see this coming, they run. They stay just out of range.
01:09And I keep rocks here. In 1947, the species was granted protective status to rebuild its population
01:16after widespread killing during World War II. Tourists can't get enough of them. More than 200,000 visit the
01:22nearby Jigukudani Monkey Park every year just to catch a glimpse of the species soaking in hot springs.
01:28But locals who've seen a very different sight of them are fed up.
01:33They scatter the apples around when eating. They just drop them like, hey, look at what I'm eating. If
01:40there are vegetables, they scatter those around too. Sometimes they even carry pumpkins in their arms.
01:45Calls to cull large numbers of macaques are growing. Local councils suggest it would take up to three
01:52years to remove them entirely from areas near humans. Ecologists aren't so sure.
01:59Even if their numbers are temporarily reduced, as long as the environment can still support monkeys,
02:05others will move in and the population will return to its original level. The problem will just repeat itself.
02:13Professor Izumiyama says current measures like GPS tracking and electric fences are a step in the right direction.
02:20Clearing more vegetation between the town and the forest would also help create a more distinct boundary
02:25and hopefully drive fewer people bananas.
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