追い払い手段の異なる集落間におけるニホンザルの逃走開始距離の差異

Abstract

Responses of Japanese macaques to human approaches during winter were quantified as flight initiation distance (FID). I compared FID among several villages that differed in their chase-away countermeasures against monkeys. Juvenile monkeys and females with infants moved further away than other females and males did. In a village with no countermeasures, a researcher could approach nearer to the monkeys than in other villages in which countermeasures were conducted. Furthermore, sex and age differences in FID occurred only in villages in which hunters with guns chased monkeys. There were no sex-age differences in the villages where local people chased monkeys away by shooting fireworks. Although no sex-age differences were found in the non-countermeasure village, the average FID in that village was shorter than in the villages shooting fireworks. These results suggested that monkeys could plastically change their behavior in response to humans and their activities. The chase-away countermeasures of the local villagers seemed to be effective at maintaining a high level of caution to humans in the monkeys and in preventing increased damage to the villages.