The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland’s (RZSS) Highland Wildlife Park has some new arrivals in the form of a trio of baby Japanese macaques.
Over the past two months the trio have been born with the most recent arrival at the start of June. Currently the troop consists of 24 individuals. That’s not particularly big for snow monkeys with some groups containing 160 members.
Some of the older babies are already beginning to search for food but the youngest sticks closely to his mum.
Head carnivore keeper for RZSS, Highland Wildlife Park, Una Richardson said, “The youngsters are doing very well and are growing quickly. They are extremely playful and the oldest two are lots of fun running around and playing with each other, whilst the youngest one is always near to his mum and is still quite shy. Once he is a little bit older he will join in and play with the two older boys.”
Keepers have chosen the named Giichi, meaning ‘One Rule’ in Japanese for the first monkey born this year. These second is known as Goku meaning ‘Great Spirit’ while the youngest has not been named. Giichi is the child of Zokky, Goku belongs to Angara and the youngest belongs to Aimi.
Japanese macaques are also known as snow monkeys. They are well known from images of them soaking in hot springs. It is the most northerly dwelling monkey in the world. They live across a range of temperature extremes with some living in sub-tropical forests and others living in sub-arctic forests.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature lists this species as Least Concern. Since 1947 they have been protected from hunting.
Photo Credit: RZSS Highland Wildlife Park
