My Japanese Macaque Exhibit
For our BTG Exhibit design project my team and I choose the Japanese Macaque (also known as the Snow monkey) Macaca fuscata. The Japanese macaque are found in the northern-most part of Japan's islands; they hail from the island of Hon-Shu. These old world monkeys are full of mischief and highly intelligent at that. My team and I had to think of clever ways to keep them away from the public. We decided on going with an outdoor exhibit to replicate the monkey's natural habitat and to keep with W.C.S's role when it comes to making naturalistic and engaging exhibits.
Now Macaques don't spend the whole day playing games and looking for food. They share a common problem with us humans; they are the only primates besides humans that live in such a cold climate. Areas where temperatures that can plummet to below zero are not your average vacation spots. Freezing cold temperatures and a lack of food would drive anyone to the point of extinction or worse....
But for the Snow macaque, the cold is just another part of life, and with their cleverness, they found a way to cope.
Hot Springs!! The warm bubbling waters of the volcanic springs keep the water all nice and warm, and the macaques use this to there advantage. This is a members only pool; only the high ranking females within the troop are allowed use. Sadly the lower ranking families must wait out in the cold, and if they try to make a move, the "Bouncer" will have a thing or two to say about it. My team and I added a pool in the center of the exhibit so that in the colder months, the macaques have a place to be that feels just like home. Here at the zoo, the number one thing we want is our animals to be happy and healthy. Therefore, providing behavioral enrichment is a must.
During the winter months where food is scarce, snow macaques resort to more creative methods of getting food. Because of the volcanic activity, streams around their habitat don't freeze over in the cold temperatures. This provides a golden opportunity to scavenge in hopes of finding any larvae or edible plants left. You will see that we also added a stream to our exhibit to replicate the ones found in the wild. In all me and my team enjoyed ourselves, and we would do it all again. We learned a lot about the Snow macaques and were happy to share what we learned with our friends and family.
Come see the Snow macaques whenever you like bring your friends and family too!
~Brenden Alvarez
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