Groups such as Shinshu University and NHK succeeded in filming the moment when Japanese macaques living in Kamikochi, Nagano Prefecture, caught and ate live fish, and the results were published in an international scientific journal.
This is the first time that such behavior of Japanese macaques has been filmed.
The group, including Professor Koji Tojo of Shinshu University's Faculty of Science and the film crew for the NHK program "Darwin has come!", announced on the 29th in the international electronic journal "Scientific Reports." Did.
Professor Tojo and his colleagues analyzed the faeces of Japanese macaques living in Kamikochi and found that they may be eating fish. I was.
As a result, we succeeded in filming at least three groups of Japanese macaques catching and eating fish, a total of 14 times.
According to the group, there are almost no reports of primates other than humans catching and eating live fish even overseas, and this is the first time that a video has been filmed with a Japanese macaque.
According to the group, the Japanese macaques of Kamikochi inhabit one of the world's most severely cold climates, so it is possible that they eat fish as an energy source to survive the winter. It is quite a surprise to me that squirrels eat fish, and I would like to continue my research on how this behavior spread, and on the kinship relationships between individuals that catch fish and those that do not.”