In Touch With Nature – Christmas Special: Japanese Macaque (Snow Monkeys) #snowmonkeys #Japan

Picture caption: Snow monkeys in the thermal spa

For my final In Touch With Nature post of 2024, which happens to fall on Christmas Day, I am taking you 17 hours of flying time away from South Africa to Nagano in Japan (yes, the same place where the 1998 Olympic Winter Games were held).

Nagano is a very beautiful place and it is home to the Japanese Macaque or snow monkeys.

According to Wikipedia, snow monkeys are a terrestrial Old World monkey (primates in the family Cercopithecidae) species that is native to Japan. They live in areas where snow covers the ground for a significant part of the year. Snow monkeys are the only species of monkeys found in Japan and they are one of the big reasons I wanted to go to Japan when the opportunity arose (TC was offered a lead reviewer position in Tokyo for two weeks and I was expensive luggage – haha!).

We visited a wild snow monkey park in Jigokudani Yaen-koen (altitude 850 metres), located in the Valley of Yokoyu River in the northern part of Nagano. This is the only place in the world where monkeys bathe in hot springs.

These are pictures of Jigokudani Yaen-koen:

Snow monkeys have brownish grey fur, pink to red faces, and short, stumpy tails. The males weigh about 11.3 kg (25 lb) and the females weigh about 8.4 kg (19 lb). They generally move on all fours.

Snow monkeys are omnivorous and eat a variety of foods including approximately 213 species of plants, insects, bark, and soil. During the winters with heavy snowfall, the monkeys rely heavily on bark (the same as elephants during the Southern African winter which is quite interesting).

These are some of my photographs of the snow monkeys in the thermal spring:

Gallery photo caption: These are all snow monkey pictures I took with my iphone.

These are a few of the pictures I took with my camera. They are better, I think.

If you are interested in using any of my snow monkey or Mount Fuji photographs, they are available for free download from Unsplash here: https://unsplash.com/@r_cheadle

Two YouTube shorts of the snow monkeys:

Kaye and I wish you happy holidays and if you celebrate Christmas, may it be very merry.

A few pictures of the tree lights in Japan.

Picture caption: Tokyo tree lights street scene (I really like this picture) Picture caption: Tokyo tree lights street sceneAbout Roberta Eaton Cheadle

Roberta Eaton Cheadle, is a South African writer and poet specialising in historical, paranormal, and horror novels and short stories. She is an avid reader in these genres and her writing has been influenced by famous authors including Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe, Amor Towles, Stephen Crane, Enrich Maria Remarque, George Orwell, Stephen King, and Colleen McCullough.

Roberta has two published novels and a collection of short stories and has horror, paranormal, and fantasy short stories included in several anthologies. She is also a contributor to the Ask the Authors 2022 (WordCrafter Writing Reference series).

Roberta is also the author and illustrator of sixteen children’s books, illustrator to a further three children’s books, and the author and illustrator of three poetry books published under the name of Robbie Cheadle, and has poems and short stories featured in several anthologies under this name.

Roberta’s blog features discussions about classic books, book reviews, poetry, and photography. https://roberta-writes.com/.

Find Roberta Eaton Cheadle

Blog: https://wordpress.com/view/robertawrites235681907.wordpress.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RobertaEaton17

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robertawrites

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Roberta-Eaton-Cheadle/e/B08RSNJQZ5

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This segment of “In Touch with Nature” is sponsored by the Midnight Anthology Series and  WordCrafter Press .

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