Japanese macaques or snow monkeys get their name because they live in the more snowy areas of Japan. Snow monkeys are the most northerly-living primates, other than humans, and they are known to congregate around thermal springs (onsen) in winter. They also enjoy rolling snowballs for fun.

Why are you guys putting my family up on Reddit?

And there’s a hierarchy of who gets to go into these thermal springs. Watched it on a NatGeo show. Can’t just let anybody in your hot tub!!

Edit: I’m just pretty sure it was NatGeo, it’s been a long time since I saw it but it doesn’t make it any less true just bc I can’t provide a link. I am sorry tho that I can’t.

I’ve got a question. If it’s cold enough out that they go warm up in a hot spring then how do they not freeze solid once they get out?

They also have a hierarchy system and those that are not considered to be worthy of enjoying their hot spring bath can some times freeze to death.

The Minnesota Zoo has a pretty nice Snow Monkey exhibit, and it’s one of the oldest at the zoo. I like when I can see the babies still clinging to mom.

To clarify from the title of this post, the macaques don’t only live in the snowy areas of Japan, and can be found in all sorts of climates, all the way down to Kyoto and Tokyo.

When I went a couple years back, I did a bunch of research into Jigokudani (the park OP’s picture is from, and the main place you can see the monkeys in hot springs), and found some criticism of the way they treat the monkeys. So I opted to see them at Iwatayama in Kyoto, which purportedly treats them very well. They’re the same species of monkey there, though no hotsprings are to be found.

The park is fantastic, with monkeys everywhere and a really nice walk up to a wonderful vista point. The monkeys in the park are wild, untrained animals and should never be approached, but the park does have a building that is effectively a human cage you can enter to buy food and give to the monkeys from within your cage. It was super fun, and I highly recommend it to anyone visiting Kyoto!

There is also a hierarchy about who can sit where in the hot spring. They bully lower-status members and don’t allow them in.

Seen these monkeys in person, it’s very cool to see. I got to feed them too! But boy are macaques just nasty animals

Hobbies include lounging in the hot springs, rolling snowballs, lounging.

Check out this depressing Gobelins animated short about it: https://youtu.be/E4BhEBaeQdg

Kubo

They actually don’t go into the hot springs naturally. It only happens in one park where humans taught them to do that with food in the 60s and their descendants continued to do it. Humans need to clean the water of this onsen or else it becomes filled with excrement. There is a lot of controversy around the park. I went myself and I think they are being treated as well as any other refuge. It’s definitely not what nature intended but they try to keep it as natural as possible.

Reminds me of [this video clip](https://youtu.be/q86g1aop6a8) to Aphex Twin’s Stone in Focus. Soothing

Sekiro…

Thing is is that each winter the alpha couple force the others to fight to the death, and the last one standing gets to go into the hot spring, or so I’m told

[Let us meditate, and reflect upon the division of ourselves. We’re granted one opportunity to experience an array of unique of planes to explore, together. Wasted are the days and nights we spend apart. Without you, who am I? To what end will we split our family? To what peak will we climb alone? With heavy individual focus, global alleviation will not come quickly. The ones succeeding must learn to give what they have. The ones failing must learn to accept graciously. We’re too fickle a life-form to have it any other way. The world has a balance we can’t nearly comprehend. However the balance has been broken. The dark side has lost their will to be equal. May the sands of time cleanse us quick enough.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q86g1aop6a8)

Sounds like a dating profile. 12 year old male loves the winter, jacuuzis, and rolling snowballs with my friends

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_macaque](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_macaque)

Lovely fellows there

Sooooo, the monkeys are living the dream?

The monkey on the left looks like his hands have frostbite

Looks like me and my friends when the bars open back up

These little dudes look so sad tho 🙁

The one in the middle looks like he’s trying to find the jet XD

>Snow monkeys are the most northernly-living primates, other than humans

And Samsquatch

Good lads.

Hot tub

I prefer to call them jacuzzi monkeys

Give em food and they’ll present you with a random item

Its gotta be really cold once they decide to leave the water.

I didn’t know they made snow balls! I need to see more of that! https://youtu.be/qQzCNW-KuCs

Makes one wonder when its ancestral primate species first arrive into the geographical land of modern day Japan. Was there a land bridge of some sort with modern day Korea once upon a time? Or a land bridge stretching from China to Taiwan through the Okinawan islands to reach the mainland? 🤔

Snow monkey sounds like a super racist term for pale white people /gingers.

Southern Quebec 1989 a troupe of Macaques escaped a safari park and roamed the countryside for a summer. They ranged on both sides of the border between NY and Quebec.

[https://www.cbc.ca/archives/when-75-snow-monkeys-went-on-the-lam-in-quebec-30-years-ago-1.5182760](https://www.cbc.ca/archives/when-75-snow-monkeys-went-on-the-lam-in-quebec-30-years-ago-1.5182760)

I hung out with them in Nagano, very chill group of little dudes

Woah, Snow Monkeys are called “Snow” Monkeys because they live in the Snow? My mind is officially blown.