See snow monkeys in the summer: a Japanese macaque was born at zoo

A Japanese macaque was born at the Moscow Zoo. This species lives in northern Japan where snow covers the ground four months a year, so these macaques are also called snow monkeys.

The newborn weighs less than a kilogram. Its mother, Chereshenka, does not let him go on his own even for a second. The mother will carry the infant on her belly for about a month, and later on her back. The monkeys can be found in the old section of the zoo near the pedestrian bridge.

“Every morning Chereshenka carefully examines the infant and cleans its fur. Relatives show interest and sometimes try to come closer to look at it and touch it. At the same time, the infant will not let go of its mother’s fur. This close connection will remain for about a year, until it can eat adult food and become independent,” said Svetlana Akulova, director general of the Moscow Zoo.

The infant will become a full group member when it is three years old. As a rule, the female will have had new infants by then. Before this, the young monkey will remain the youngest and have to obey older, more experienced monkeys.

Ms Akulova says there is a group of nine Japanese macaques living at the Moscow Zoo. The group is headed by a strong adult male called Apelsin, who was born in 2001. He makes sure the hierarchal order in the family is observed and that there are no conflicts. If a young monkey’s “monkey business” goes too far, Apelsin separates it with active gestures and frightening sounds. The mammals like to play games in their open-air cage using many of the toys that zoo employees leave for them.

Japanese macaques are the most northern monkeys in the world. They can stay outside even if the temperature drops to -20 degrees Celsius. Adult males are 80–95 centimetres tall and weigh about 12 kilos. Females are usually smaller by half. Thanks to their thick and long fur with underfur, monkeys always stay warm. For example, the monkeys at the Moscow Zoo can go to the open-air cage during the winter, and they like to walk, play and sometimes even make snowballs. In the wild, Japanese macaques spend a lot of time in hot springs, many of which can be found on the northern Japanese islands. Macaques inhabit all types of forests, from subtropical to mountain, and often go to a seacoast where they can swim or even dive looking for nutritious seaweed.

“There are several folk tales about how Japanese monkeys came up with the idea to sit in hot thermal waters. One of them says that a monkey fell in by chance after dropping its food into the spring. Instead of getting out, the macaque stayed in the warm water. Other monkeys followed suit. If it is true, the macaques’ remarkable ability to learn and pass information among each other has served them well,” Akulova added.

Generally, after the winter the animals at the Moscow Zoo are moving to their summer enclosures. Visitors will be able to see the Asian elephant calf Filimon, a dik-dik antelope calf, as well as great cormorant nestlings. Not long ago, a rare Dalmatian pelican chick was born at the zoo. Visitors can see it at the Birds and Butterflies pavilion in the new section. There is a family of blue sheep living near the pavilion. The animals were brought to the Moscow Zoo from the Centre for Rare Animal Species Reproduction in the Moscow Region.