Oita's "Monkey Mountain" (4)

OK, this is probably the last batch of pics from Mt. Takasaki in Oita

Oita's "Monkey Mountain" (3)

Still more pics from Mt. Takasaki in Oita (with still a few more more to come):




An overheard snatch of conversation between an elderly man and his grand-daughter:

She: Grandpa, what are those monkeys doing.
He: (After a long pause) Well... I guess they're practicing, dear...

I laughed out loud...

Oita's "Monkey Mountain" (2)

Some more pics from Mt. Takasaki in Oita (with more to come):

Oita's "Monkey Mountain" (1)

Last week I spent a couple of days with my family in Oita Prefecture. While we were there we visited Mt.Takasaki National Park ("Monkey Mountain"). Mt. Takasaki is home to about 1,700 wild Japanese Macaques (apparently the Japanese Macaque is the most northerly-living non-human primate).

According to the park's website (linked above) Mt. Takasaki "is not a zoo." The monkeys "live and move about freely in natural groupings." (I didn't see anything to contradict this.) The monkeys live in three distinct groups (or colonies). "These groups take turns, following the same schedule every day, coming down to the base of the mountain to feed."

I was able to walk freely among the monkeys (keep your jokes to yourselves!) and take a crapload of pictures. Here are a few (with more to follow in the coming days):