Monkey mania – locals in Japan struggle to keep macaques under control - video Dailymotion

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Among Japan’s many tourist draws, hundreds of macaque monkeys roaming through its northern alps remain very popular. Locals, however, see them as pests. Despite huge efforts to drive the animals out of residential areas, there are growing calls to cull them - but some are calling that plan short-sighted.

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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.

Monkey mania – locals in Japan struggle to keep macaques under control

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