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Food
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Japanese macaques have a varied diet. Though
they prefer fruits, they also eat young leaves, buds, grain, nuts, bark,
mushrooms, insects, snails, crayfish, and birds' eggs. Troops that live
in coastal areas will also eat seaweed (Beacham 1998).
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Food is very
plentiful in the spring, when new leaves begin to unfold. The macaques
will also eat fruits, pith, and shoots
during this time. There are two to three intensive feeding times, punctuated
by periods of rest.
In the summer, the macaques' food resources diminish
because the young plants have matured. However, fruit, pith, and bamboo
shoots are still available. In the summer, there are two feeding periods
in the morning, followed by a resting period and another feeding and
moving period.
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Photograph courtesy of phototravels.net |
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Food is most plentiful and predictable in the autumn due to the high
availability of fruits. There are usually two low-activity, light feeding
periods in the morning, followed by a resting period and an intense feeding
period later in the afternoon. The macaques have a very low level of
general activity during the autumn, suggesting that they are storing
fat for use during the winter months. In addition, the breeding season
is thought to have evolved in some troops to occur in autumn because of the high food
availability.
Food is most scarce in the winter. The snow cover
eliminates grasses as a source of food, so the macaques are
limited to tree bark and buds, though they will also eat rice remaining
in rice paddies after harvest. They also utilize fat reserves that
they accumulate during the autumn. There are two to four feeding periods
during the winter (Yotsumoto 1976).
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The macaques feed primarily in trees, but as
winter approaches they spend more feeding time on the ground because there
are few leaves and fruits in the trees. Because their food sources are
clumped, the macaques usually forage separately (except for mothers and
their young offspring), even if they are in the same tree (Yotsumoto 1976).
In addition, they have cheek pouches where they can carry food while they
forage (Flannery 2002). |
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A troop's daily feeding typically occurs in
one of two ways. Sometimes the macaques feed in one area for several hours,
usually resting before they move on. However, at other times they move
very slowly and eat as they travel to their next destination, stopping
individually to rest for brief periods and then catching up to the rest
of the troop. |
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Food is the main factor that determines the
size of a troop's home range. If a troop is large, it must have a larger
home range in order to find enough food to maintain its numbers. Because
Japanese macaques' home ranges are becoming more and more restricted by
the growing human population, they are often unable to find adequate food,
and the troop size decreases due to starvation (Yotsumoto 1976). |
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