Skilled fishermen. Scientists first filmed how snow monkeys fish to survive the winter (photo)

About a year ago in Ecology & Evolution, a research team published a paper suggesting for the first time that Japanese macaques in the Japanese Alps (Kamikochi) have mastered the skill of winter fishing.

Later, scientists made their assumptions based on indirect information – they conducted a metogenome analysis of snow monkey feces and found traces of brown trout DNA in them. As a result, scientists have suggested that the macaques’ winter diet includes fish.

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However, it’s still too soon to say that snow monkeys have mastered the skill of fishing – the presence of fish DNA in the macaques’ feces may indicate that the monkeys simply ate the food residues left by the climbers. However, the article went around the world and received wide publicity – as a result, two cameramen provided the scientists with a series of images showing snow monkeys eating fish.

The researchers soon published a new paper, and although the available evidence shows that snow monkeys have almost certainly mastered the skill of ice fishing, the researchers were still missing an important piece of the puzzle. No one has been able to film the process of catching fish. Fortunately, the NHK film crew came to the aid of the scientists.

After shooting and researching from January to March 2022, scientists were finally able to capture the real moment of the snow monkey hunt. Now researchers have the first video footage confirming that macaques have truly mastered the skill of fishing to survive the winter.

In total, the scientists filmed 14 fishing scenes. This suggests that in at least three groups of snow monkeys, several primates have mastered the skill of winter fishing and are excellent at fishing.

Scientists suggest that the skill of fishing developed gradually – probably macaques first ate aquatic herbivores, then insects, and only then added caught fish to their diet.

Note that during the study, the scientists focused on studying two dozen Japanese macaques living in four separate groups in the Japanese Alps. In winter, the temperature here drops below -20°C, so primates had to develop their fishing skills to somehow survive the harsh winter.

Previously Focus wrote that scientists first caught a fox prey – they caught 10 carp.