u/No_Vehicle_5085

A day in the life of a Japanese macaque (macaca fuscata).

The beginning of this video shows Punch engaging in some instinctual behaviors - foraging, picking up piles of older dried up leaves and inspecting them closely. It's instinctual for these macaques to check dried piles of leaves for hidden food items. Nuts, seeds, and small insects are often hidden in these old piles of leaves. Notice how Punch often stops, looks down, and then reaches and pulls up piles of leaves as he's foraging around these piles of sticks. He does this often - .43 seconds in he picks up a pile of leaves, but gets a playful chase, 58 seconds in he stops again, spies a pile of leaves and picks them up, Notice that he turns the leaves over and looks underneath them. He finds something tasty and eats a little bit and then continues to dig through the leaves which naturally drop down beneath the twigs. Every now and then he will eat something he finds - likely small bugs and seeds. They do eat fresh leaves and bark, but typically when you see them inspecting older leaves they are finding other hidden food gems and not eating the old leaves themselves.

At 3:07 they are both gnawing on the bark of a large twig. They soon are gnawing on the same area and spend some time seemingluy locked in a "kiss". Macaques don't actually engage in kissing, but these very close encounters are a way of social bonding. No matter how much Punch and his allies/friends play and trust each other, their bonds are constantly reinforced through grooming and other close contact. Of course, it wouldn't be a Punch video if the content creator wasn't focusing in on some behaviors, insinuating there is something more or strange going on here. 🤦‍♂️ This is perfectly normal behavior for these monkeys.

After briefly going back to check out the bark, Punch decides he'd rather forage around the leaves for a while.

Also - it's at this point that we hear some squabbling going on in the background. One of my favorite things about this particular video is that the creator left the normal sounds - and throughout this video we hear lots of squabbling, disagreements, and correction happening throughout- none of which is directed at Punch.

4:29 - Punch briefly "mounts" Moe. Depending on the age of the macaque, these incidents of mounting/humping serve a different purpose. Until these monkeys are around age 3 this type of activity is simply play and bonding, there is no erection or sexual type of stimulation going on prior to adolescence. We have seen Punch full on thrusting in the past, but he just does a half hearted mount here.

• Age 0-1 (Infant): Humping is a part of rough and tumble play. There is no erection or sexual pleasure involved at this age, but along with other types of play it helps them develop balance and probably begins to help the males develop muscle memory for when humping turns from play to purposeful sexual activity.
• Age 1-3 (Juvenile): Mounting frequency increases. Young macaques (particularly males) frequently mount peers using the double foot clasp mount, This is the mount method used by adults in heterosexual mounting, so this serves as practice for future proper technique.
• (Ages 3-4) (Adolescence): This is a transitional phase. Females begin experiencing estrus and engaging in adult-typical reproductive and homosexual mounting. For males, mounting postures and solicitations become more effective and adult-like.
• (Ages 4.5+ (Adulthood): Both males and females achieve behavioral sexual maturity. Mounting here includes heterosexual copulation and bisexual/homosexual consortships. Females may use the double foot clasp mount on males in order to solicit a sexual enxounter (female M. fuscata are not the shy and waiting around kind of gals). Female homosexual behavior involves a number of different positions as they seek to achieve genital stimulation

4:50 - Infants playing together. Early into Punch's hand rearing the decision was made to allow this troop to have a normal reproductive cycle in the next season, which would have begun when Punch was only about 2 months old. This was done in order to give Punch the best chance to ultimately integrate into the troop successfully. Species normative behavior is essential and is practiced with same age peers, rough and tumble play is necessary for development of essential physical abilities, age-matched peers provide a social bridge and safety net - allowing Punch as much opportunity as possible to establish allies.

These infants are naturally attracted to Punch because they recognize he is near in age to them. Some of them are large enough to begin safely playing with him already, and as time goes on we will see him playing with more and more of them.

In thsi clip of the babies playing together we can see them developing various physical skills they will need as they age.

7:00 - After spending quite a bit of time at the top of the mountain near and on the chain bridge playing with Moe, Punch decides to have some alone play time. This is a sign of a well adjusted young macaque. The social bonds are essential and it's importan that Punch has made allies and playmates, but it's also important for him to continue solitary play and exploration. Punch is very comfortable and feels very secure in his alone time.

After a short play session alone, Punch goes up to the top and receives some grooming from an adult, but Moe comes along and wants to play. There is anothe rbrief mounting and humping session followed by grooming. Often these mounting/humping events result in either play ro grooming.

10:53 Moe and Punch hear a squabble break out and after a quick listen they begin some play on the chain bridge.

16:56 - Punch enters the back area.

18:30 - Must be getting close to feeding time, Punch is climbing on the door with some of the others. A very short disagreement is heard in the background

18:50 - appaently Punch goes into the back area again. Some of the monkeys seem to be curious about what is going on in the back area, I'm sure they are calling Punch to come to the back and the monkeys are curious about what is going on, we have seen this curiousity at the new procedure from the beginning.

The sounds that happen are the normal sounds of excitement that precede the food districution.

19:21 Keeper enters the enclosure to distribute cabbage.

20:15 - Less than a full minute has passed and we start hearing spats and squabbles, monkeys being corrected, fighting over food. Again, Punch is not involved.

21:10 The monkeys that are all fairly close to each other and near the keeper are probably all pretty much at the same level within their hierarchy or they are allies/friendly as they tolerate each other being close in proximity while eating.

21:45 - More fussing/fighting over food is heard

21:52 -We see one of the infants with it's mother. Feeding time is highly dangerous for these infants because they don't yet know how to navigate the social etiqueete regarding hierarchy and feeding. But they are learning that feeding time feels tense, their mothers are keeping them close, making sure they don't accidentally wander into a dominant monkey's feeding area. The general feeling of stress and tension within the group naturally causes these infants to pay attention. Day after day of exposure to this behavior, the tension, the fighting they can hear, the way the other macaques are behaving all contributes to their education regarding feeding etiquette.

22:00 - This monkey is rolling food on the ground. Usually we see this behavior when they have grass or something larger. It's an instinctual behavior they usually engage in before eating vegetation. Rolling it around will loosen dirt and other things they don't want to eat, and is the primary reason for doing this.

22:10 - a solitary adult comes into view, approaches a small pile of scattered cabbage, and is able to eat in peace for a few seconds until he sees another monkey passing behind. He winces, which would indicate he is likely lower ranked. Lower ranked monkeys are always on edge, they tend to either stay with other lower ranked monkeys and allies, or like this one, wander around by themselves looking for food in areas that no other monkeys are around. He leaves the area because of the presence of the other monkey, he's not going to take any chances.

A young monkey (Momiage?) picks up a youngster and moves to higher ground. It is very likely this youngster is babysitting the youngster with the mother's permission as a mother is not gong to leave an infant to fend for itself during feeding time.

22:56 - This appears to be a while later, we saw monkeys roaming around and very little food still left on the ground. This youngster is by itself, but we will soon see the mother is close by. The more dominant monkeys are finished eating before the food is gone as they claim the best feeding spots and they are able to eat in peace without having to constantly run and find a different pile of food to snatch from. So, this is beyond any time frame where it would dangerous for this infant to be alone. But the mother is close by regardless as we see when the baby runs over to her.

23:15 - Punch has returned to the group. As we watch him we can see that he has a small piece of what might be cabbage in his mouth. Pretty soon we see him picking up small pieces of cabbage in the playground area.

It is likely that the keepers are deliberately throwing extra food in areas they know Punch likes to hang around to encourage Punch to get mroe comfortable with eating major food items out in the open enclosure. The more Punch is willing to pick up food items other than leaves, twigs, and grass from the outer enclosure area while other monkeys are around, the more comfortable he will become with the idea of eating among them.

They are likely also cutting down on his food portion in his private feeding sessions so he will be encouraged to pick up food out in the enclosure.

24:23 Punch has a pretty large piece of cabbage he's eating here.

24:47 - Punch is on one of his favorite places to chill and also seen eating a large piece of cabbage. Punch's besties seem to be of relatively high rank and they would already have eaten a full share of food by this time. At some point he seems to become more comfortable with the fact that he has a large piece of food and is out in the open and he jumps fully up onto the rope and chain area that he loves so much. He continues to look around every now and then, but does not seem overly concerned, he's enjoying his meal and seems very relaxed.

This may seem small, but it represents progress.

Small squeals can be heard now and then, the kind of squeals that represent a little spats, but Punch doesn't notice until it gets more serious. He looks to see what is going on, but the scene changes very quickly so we don't get to see his full reaction. What we do see of him he seems to be fairly relaxed about it all.

List of squabbles, disagreements, and corrections in this video (none involve Punch): 4:04, 10:53, 18:30, 20:15, 21:45, 26:26

(During a video of less than 30 minutes in length we hear a minimum of 6 different squabbles, some of them fairly significant- and not one of them involves Punch.)

There are very few videos that contain the natural sounds happening inside the Monkey Mountain enclosure. And since the cameras are almost all trained on Punch and the natural sounds are covered up there still seem to be a misperception that Punch is being targeted or bullied or he's a victim of the other macaques.

This misperception is understandable, many people are just basing their perception on what has been recorded and shown, mostly with sounds that are happening covered up. Some of the cover up of sounds are likely intentional, some creators re deliberately trying to continue a perception of a young monkey being bullied (for clicks), and some of them likely don't realize how covering up the sounds is contributing to a perception that Punch is the only macaque that is receiving correction or having other types of agggressive encounters.

Japanese Macaques have a despotic hierarchy - which means they enforce hierarchy and correct social mistakes by means of aggression. Also, just as human beings have different personalities, so do Japanese macaques and other monkeys. Some of them are grouchy and it doesn't even matter if the infraction they perceive is major or minor or a big nothing, they might still reach out and give a shove or pull another monkey's hair a bit hard.

The above video begins at a time stamp that starts roughly at the beginning of a spat that broke out during feeding time. It did not involve Punch as he is riding on the shoulder of one of the keepers at the time. It is easy to hear by the sound it is every bit, and frankly more, aggressive and long lasting than many of the incidents that have involved Punch.

In order for Punch to be able to take the next steps in his integration he needs to become more comfortable with navigating the feeding competition. Feeding time is a time when little spats break out, and apparently from what I'm reading from the zoo it was mainly during these times that Punch initially had some issues with getting corrected. That makes sense because he would have not been familiar with expectations regarding his behavior during feeding time.

Their interactions are largely shaped by rigid dominance hierarchies, where high-ranking individuals secure priority access to food. Subordinate members utilize specific submission, appeasement, and sharing behaviors to navigate group dynamics and reduce conflict.

Punch would not have learned these things during while being hand reared and fed by human handlers.

So, how does the zoo gauge whether or not Punch is ready to handle the stresses of feeding time within his troop? And how do they know whether he has gained enough confidence to eat his main meals (he's already foraging a bit) with the group as his main way of getting food?

Regardless of how they measure, and subsequently encourage his ability to be comfortable eating in the enclosure as his main way of getting food, there is one thing that MUST change.

Jumping and riding on his favorite keepers while they are distributing food. This is a hindrance to his continued progress because as long as he has the ability to jump on them - he's going to do it. It is highly likely that he is mainly doing this out of habit, ease of getting food right from the bucket, and yes, some of it is of course, he sees them as fully trustworthy and knows he's perfectly safe jumping on them.

There are only two real options to get him to stop jumping on them. They either have to change the staff that distribute food - or, they have to remove Punch from the enclosure while the same staff distributes food. There really are no other options to break this habit. One or the other has to NOT be present during the food distribution.

They also have announced that they want him to be able to choose between eating in the back rooms or eating out in the main enclosure.

And again, they cannot get a different behavior out of him during feeding time if they continue to allow him access to jump on the keepers during food distribution. There is no way for them to make him stay in the enclosure when they go into the back. They have tried seeing if he will do it by himself, and he has never done this.

So, we may have seen the end of him jumping on the keepers, just not in the way we may have thought. Instead of changing the keepers, they seem to be removing him from the enclosure first, and then the same keepers can distribute food without Punch jumping on them.

This is a good idea because it doesn't change anything for the Monkey Mountain troop whle Punch is able to decide to return to the enclosure right away to eat with the troop or, if he remains inside, they will simply provide him with food if he doesn't go back to the enclosure to eat first.

It is important for Punch to be able to be comfortable eating with the troop. We won't get to see him ride on his keepers any more, but just think of how much fun the cameras will have following him around and we will see what are his favorite foods, and if he eats near his friends. There will continue to be all kinds of interesting things to watch for.

I have been unable to update my original comment regarding the aggressive posturing towards the zookeeper.

So I will copy and paste the original comment along iwth one important change after I was able to watch this on a larger screen and noticed that originally I had idenfied this as a female coalition rather than a male coalistion. The reason I had originaly watched the smaller screen and thought it was a group of females was because TWO of the males are engaging in what we call "baby cradling mimicry" behavior.

On a small screen I interpreted this as two females who were carrying babies. However, on the larger screen I see they are males pretending to be cradling babies.

This is a well known activity that males will engage in - they are trying to pretned there are females with babies so that the 'offending macaque" will go away.

The members of a coalition do not have to personally witness an "inciting event" to join in aggression. they simply have to be a member of the coalition. From their point of view, whatever set off the original offended macaque to posture against Miyagoshi (I hope I got his name right), they are simply joining in as a support network. These type of strict hierarchies work on the idea of support networks and both males and females have these networks of individuals that support each other, groom each other, help raise eiach other's babies, etc.

Everything in the original post still stands - with the only exception being this was a male coalition rather than a female coalition. And now you have learned a new behavior - males that mimic baby cradling - so that is kind of a bonus!

This troop has provided some very interesting and well known Japanese macaque behvior. I'm sure we will continue to see examples of other behaviors - particularly during breeding season which will be coming soon.

I first saw this incident from a video by a different creator, who filmed it from a different angle. From that angle, it was not clear to me exactly what was happening with the specific act of aggression.

Thanks to u/VictoriaNiccals who provided me a link to the above video, which is the same incident I had seen, but this is taken by a different content creator, who had a better angle.

This is a very likely a good example of a specific type of aggression called redirected aggression.

To explain this type of aggression it helps to understand how primate behaviorists classify the type of hierarchy of Japanese macaques (and many others). We refer to this type as a "despotic hierarchy". Despotic hierarchies are characterized by very strict hierarchies where the dominant members use aggression and the members lower in the hierarchy are expected to engage in obvious submissive behaviors.

This is very different from the type of hierarchy we see in gorillas, where the more dominant members are more benevolent toward the less dominant members.

In the case of Japanese macaques, the hierarchy is built around the females, even though the troop is led by an alpha male. Since males typically leave their birth troop by the time they are sexually mature, the stability of the troop is maintained by the females, and the females pass their status to their offspring.

When a female that is lower in the hierarchy has a run-in with a female higher up, she cannot take her frustration and stress out on that higher female, she has to submit. She will be in a state of stress and often will lash out at a member of the troop that is lower in the hierarchy, and usually will choose either an orphan (if there is an orphan in the troop) or a young male offspring of a female that is lower in the hierarchy than herself. This is called redirected aggression and it serves to dissipate her stress and frustration.

In the above video, we don't see the aggression that ocurred against the adult female, but, based on the large amount of research it is very rare that an adult female will take aggressive action against a young male, even an orphan, unless that orphan has done something that needs correction or, she is engaging in redirected aggression.

In this case, it's clear that Punch has not done anything wrong, so this is highly likely a case of redirected aggression.

It begins when this adult female is walking behind Punch and Momiage when one of the other young monkeys playfully comes up and takes a swipe at Momiage. This gets the attention of the adult female and you see that turns and walks towards the youngsters and she wants to identify which monkey is holding on to Momiage. She sees that it is Punch, who is the perfect target for redirected aggression, so she goes behind him and takes a swipe at Punch from behind. She is chased away by Momiage, but comes back for a second try and chased away again.

This may seem very harsh to us, but this is normal behavior for all animals that live in this type of social hierarchy, not just Japanese macaques. If there were other orphans in this group, we would see this type of behavior also exhibited towards them, and the incidents of redirected aggression would be spread out between all of them.

And also because the camera is always on Punch it's important to remember that this is also happening to other young males that have mothers that are lower on the totem pole, but nobody is filming those monkeys and those incidents. This act of aggression may seem like it was personal against Punch, but it really is not - we see this in every troop that has ever been studied and all young males that are lower in the hierarchy have this same experience. It hapens on a daily basis and is very normal.

Sometimes we have seen posts and comments that blame everything that happens to Punch on him, as if he is the cause of everything that happens to him, but he is having normal experiences that every lower ranking male has, there is nothing personal about it. There have been some incidents that did happen because Punch didn't know better than to do something, or, he was not paying attention to the monkeys around him and didn't notice the social cues they were sending. But that is happening less and less because he has learned quite a bit.

Edit: One thing I have noticed is that Punch is really overreacting to this very minor incident. I think over time, especially with Momiage's calm demeanor, he will learn to regulate his reactions better. There may be examples that show less overreaction than this one, I'm not sure, but he has been traumatized and this type of overreaction is normal under those circumstances.

I have been trying to find good examples of lipsmacking and finally ran across a video of this behavior between one of the new mothers and her baby.

I haven't seen much of this behavior at all in this troop, but it's entirely possible that it happens more often than known and people uploading video just aren't filming it or are editing it out.

I had reached out to a creator specifically mentioning to him that this behavior often occurs between mother and baby during the first 30 days of the baby's life and asked him to be on the lookout for it and if he could be kind enough to film it for us.

here is an example of a mother engaging in this behavior, but the baby isn't really fully engaged with the behavior so it isn't really as good an example as I had hoped to upload. But you can see how it begins with animated mouth movements and how the tongue is used in this behavior. Unfortunately, this video, like many of them, has music overlaying any natural sounds. The sound of lispsmacking is really interesting, and it's a shame we can't hear it.

I apologize for not being able to just cut out a small portion, but the behavior starts at around 12:50 in this video:

Lip Smacking at 12:50