Study on the behavioral alteration of wild Japanese macaques.

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The recent expansion of distribution of wild Japanese macaques was studied in the Wakasa district of Fukui Prefecture and in the Kiso district of Nagano Prefecture. The results obtained are as follows ; 1)rapid expansion of the distribution of Japanese macaques occurred after 1970, 2)the macaques who was not afraid the presence of human beings increased, which might cause the approach to the villages and cultivated fields, 3)the possible factor influenced can be the decreasing labors in the local villages, especially those for agricultures and forest-ries, 4)the exclusion of macaques from the game animals after the second world war also accelerated the trend, 5)enrichment of the nutritious conditions by taking crops in the field may influenced on their higher birth ratios, 6)the large-scaled timbering which was done during 1950s to 1960s could induce the first-step movement of the macaques from the deep in mountainous areas to the near of human beings, 7)at present even the "country monkeys" do not fear human beings so much and some "urban monkeys" showed very familiar behaviors with them in the cultivated fields and/or near the villages, 8)such macaques may forage around the cultivated fields and became to have a very wider home range. These alteration of the behavior of wild Japanese macaques reflects the historical changes of Japanese society and it needs to establish a new relationships between wild animals and human beings in Japan.