00:00These cute fluffy primates are wild Japanese macaques.
00:03Look familiar?
00:04They're the same species as Punch, the baby macaque at a zoo near Tokyo
00:09who went viral for carrying around his stuffed orangutan toy.
00:12But unlike Punch, these wild macaques have gained a reputation for their monkey business,
00:17and not in a good way.
00:19They're notorious for stealing food in rural areas
00:22and are estimated to have caused nearly 5 million U.S. dollars in crop damage in 2024.
00:27And farmers often resort to culling to keep these monkeys off their crops.
00:33I'm very grateful that people are falling in love with Japanese macaque
00:36because of how cute Punch is.
00:38However, in Japan, these monkeys are being trapped and killed
00:41because of the damage they cause to crops.
00:44Over 20,000 of the primates are culled every year,
00:47but primatologist Soma Takayo says farmers should look at less lethal methods
00:52to keep their crops safe.
00:53And she's not alone.
00:55Despite the troubles the monkeys cause,
00:57apple farmer Matsuda Takumi has also grown to love photographing them in the wild,
01:02gaining a following on Instagram.
01:05It can hurt your livelihood when monkeys eat your valuable crops.
01:08It's not that people hate monkeys,
01:10but they develop those kinds of feelings
01:12when they think about their livelihoods becoming impossible.
01:15Monkey, monkey!
01:17Monkey dogs are one solution.
01:19They can respond faster than humans and will scare away mischievous monkeys.
01:22And there are also monkey traps, though they can still hurt the animals.
01:26Although there are a number of solutions,
01:28one monkey dog trainer says that farmers also need to re-examine the problem.
01:33The point is, how do we coexist with them?
01:35I don't think humans can just resort to killing them without putting in a bit of effort first.
01:40With the farms here to stay and more encounters with monkeys sure to happen,
01:45advocates here hope that Punch's fame can bring awareness to the challenges
01:48these monkeys face in the wild and help humans better coexist with them.
01:52Scott Huang and Tiffany Wong for Taiwan Plus.
Comments