In the foothills of Japan's Northern Alps, people are chasing monkeys. Wearing bright orange vests, the humans ring bells, blow whistles, and strike rocks and trees with walking sticks as they weave through bamboo and brush. Using GPS trackers, they follow the monkeys' movements and radio teammates to close in when nearby. They even have a name: the Monkey Chasing Squad. The aim is to herd the Japanese macaques back into the mountains and away from farms and homes, reports the AP.
The monetary damage they cause is relatively minor, compared to losses from boar, deer, and crows. But the monkeys are increasingly a bother for people on farms and in neighborhoods near the mountains, breaking into homes, stealing food, and ruining crops. Michael Johnson, a retired English professor who has lived in Azumino since 2011, said that monkeys have broken into his house four times. A 2021 raid by 12 monkeys resulted in a five-hour cleanup after they feasted on eggs, bread, grains, fruit, and almost everything else in sight. Enter the Monkey Chasing Squad, about 50 paid, part-time civil servants who try to control the monkeys.
Before 2023, nearly all the monkeys in Ariake, a district of Azumino city, lived within the town, with only 1% in the mountains, said Masaya Miyake, who moved to Azumino five years ago and now leads the squad. According to the city, the macaques spend about half their time in the hills and the remainder in the villages, an improvement both Miyake and the city attribute to the group's efforts. "We're just returning them to where they're supposed to be," said Miyake. "Naturally, the food in the village is more nutritious and tastier. They're not simply being mischievous; they're just coming down to eat."
story continues below
The Monkey Chasing Squad patrols the hills year-round. Despite the group's efforts to keep the monkeys away from human settlements, calls to cull large numbers of monkeys are growing. "A quick, painless death by someone skilled is the last kindness we can offer," said Azumino City Councilman Yoichi Tsujitani. He estimates it would take two to three years to remove macaques entirely from areas near humans. But existing efforts to cull macaques may have made the problem worse, according to ecologist Shigeyuki Izumiyama of Nagano's Shinshu University. When entire troops are removed, neighboring groups move in, and shrinking troop sizes push surviving monkeys deeper into farmland.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
