In a rarely seen phenomenon in the simian world, a nine-year-old female known as Yakei has become the boss of a 677-strong troop of Japanese macaque monkeys at a nature reserve on the island of Kyushu in Japan.
Yakei’s path to the top began in April when she beat up her own mother to become the alpha female of the troop at the Takasakiyama Natural Zoological Garden in the city of Oita. While that would have been the pinnacle for most female monkeys, Yakei decided to throw her 10kg weight around among the males.
In late June, she challenged and roughed up Sanchu, the 31-year-old alpha male who had been leader of “troop B” at the reserve for five years.
Photo: AP
Surprised wardens at Takasakiyama, where there has never been a female monkey boss in the reserve’s 70-year history, carried out a “peanut test” on June 30, putting out nuts for the group and seeing who ate first.
Sanchu backed away and gave Yakei first dibs on the treat, confirming her alpha status.
“Since then, Yakei has been climbing trees and shaking them, which is an expression of power and a very rare behavior in females,” said Satoshi Kimoto, a guide at Takasakiyama.
“She has been walking around with her tail up, which is also very unusual for a female,” Kimoto said, adding that staff at the reserve were at a loss as to the causes of Yakei’s dominant antics.
Takasakiyama, established as a reserve for monkeys in 1952, is home to about 1,500 macaques, split between troop A and troop B. The monkeys live mainly in the forested mountain at the center of the reserve, roaming freely and coming down to lower ground for food provided by wardens.
The wild population of Japanese macaques is estimated to be more than 100,000 and spread across three of Japan’s four main islands: Kyushu, Honshu and Shikoku.
They are known to sometimes be aggressive, and hikers, mountain climbers and visitors to the Takasakiyama reserve are advised not to maintain eye contact with them as it is interpreted as a challenge.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS