Aomori's protected monkeys run amok, proliferate, pillage

AOMORI (Kyodo) Residents of the Shimokita Peninsula in Aomori Prefecture are having trouble with monkeys designated by the central government as a protected species because the primates are threatening them and damaging their crops.

Monkeys, designated by the central government as a protected species, raid crops here in December, posing an increasing nuisance to residents. KYODO PHOTO

Alarmed by the heavy damage to crops and the potential dangers to the public, residents in the former village of Wakinosawa, which is now part of the city of Mutsu, began to hunt the monkeys two years ago but with little effect, prompting the municipal government to take additional measures that have endangered local coexistence with the monkeys.

Nowadays in Wakinosawa, farm plots encircled by electric fences are watched over for eight to 16 hours a day.

"In the worst year, all the fields were damaged," a 79-year-old farmer lamented. "The monkeys look cute but are a menace."

A 59-year-old local resident said: "Day and night, the monkeys jump on the roof of my house and make loud noises. We simply cannot live like this."

Last August, four monkeys swarmed a second-grader and injured her.

According to a 2005 poll that covered 250 residents in areas suffering damage from the monkeys, 68 percent of the respondents called the animals annoying.

About 200 monkeys lived on the peninsula in the latter half of the 1960s and were designated a protected species in 1970. The entire peninsula, the northern limit of their habitat, became a conservation area.

Since then the number of monkeys has risen and their habitat has expanded. As a result, the damage they cause to agricultural products has become conspicuous.

Firecrackers and electric fences have failed to keep them at bay, prompting Wakinosawa to begin capturing and poisoning them in 2005.

The hunting operation has produced some results, but the monkeys continue to cause damage. They now number around 1,800 and the Mutsu Municipal Government estimates they will outnumber Wakinosawa residents by around 2020.

In October, the city asked the Cultural Affairs Agency to reduce the conservation area. "Unless the conservation area is cut down and the number of monkeys is contained, future damage will inevitably be enormous," said Hideharu Yamazaki of the city board of education.

The agency has shown some understanding toward the area's plight but has been slow in accepting the request. "We will have to study fully whether it will lead to coexistence with the monkeys," an agency official said.

For the city, the expense associated with protecting the monkeys is heavy.

Under the central government's three-pronged financial reforms, subsidies to local governments were reduced beginning in fiscal 2003 and Mutsu was forced to bear the expense of protecting the monkeys -- an amount that reached about 15 million yen in fiscal 2006. "This is the limit to our budget," a Mutsu official said.

The central government has not approved local residents' requests to be allowed to capture more monkeys. "The central government should take responsibility because it has designated the monkeys as a protected species," a local official said.