JIGOKUDANI MONKEY PARK 36° 43’ 58.1” N 138° 27’ 45.7” E
-The Story of the Park-
let ’ s venture to the nagano prefecture to continue our tale, specifically to the Jigokudani Monkey Park and the story of how this park came to be. The inception of the Jigokudani Monkey Park is one of conservation. In 1957, a keen hiker by the name of Sogo Hara discovered the original troop of snow monkeys while trekking through Jigokudani, or Hell Valley, known as such due to the steep mountains and the smell of sulphur that emits from the natural hot springs prevalent throughout that area. From the early-1950s, the snow monkeys’ habitat became threatened by the introduction of ski resorts, ski lifts, and runs. Their area began to shrink, along with their food supply. As a result, they moved down toward the human habitations and farms lower down the mountains. The monkeys began to source and steal food from the farms, which led to a government-approved petition that permitted farmers to kill any monkeys that were threatening their livelihood. When Sogo Hara learned of this and noticed a significant decline in their numbers, he made it his mission to provide an area that was safe for the snow monkeys, to protect them and maintain their numbers. For months, he placed apples in the Jigokudani valley to entice the monkeys to gather and eat there rather than the local farmlands. It took several months and constant feeding to lure the monkeys into this area and for it to become a more permanent fixture, but his efforts were successful and the Jigokudani Monkey Park was born. As legend has it, his efforts were noticed and supported by owners of a local inn called Korakukan, which is located just outside the park. They had become fond of the monkeys and began to leave apples outside of their inn. They also had an outside onsen, a natural hot spring bath, where people bathed and relaxed and took benefit from the healing properties of the high mineral content of the water. No one is quite sure how or why the snow monkeys started to use the hot springs, considering they are similar to cats with a strong dislike of water. There are several stories, and one is that a young snow monkey fell into the waters and was rescued by its mother who found the hot water pleasant and chose to go back in to enjoy it. Another is that some of the apples that were left out for the monkeys fell into the water and enticed them in. Then there was a case of monkey see monkey do. The monkeys also could have simply seen humans relaxing in the onsen and copied their behaviour. Regardless of how this behaviour began, in the same way that humans use the onsens to relax and unwind, the snow monkeys in Jigokudani do too. This makes them the only troop of monkeys in the world known to bathe in hot springs, which makes them a natural tourist attraction. It is worth noting that snow monkeys don’t need a hot spring to survive. They can withstand the coldest temperatures of any other species of monkey and they live in other areas perfectly well without a hot spring.
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MOTHER VOLUME THREE
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