Macaque fuscata

Macaque fuscata is the name of the Japanese macaque or macaque of red face, a primate that lives in the forests of the islands of the archipelago of Japan and the islands Ryukyu. There is well adapted to the cold Japanese winter, with his body covered with a thick and woolly cloak of brown - greyish hair, with the exception of the face, buttocks, palm of the hands and feet, where there concentrate numerous blood glasses that give him a pink color. He lives in groups or “troops“ of 30 or more individuals. When the temperature descends below 0ºC it is habitual to see them taking a bath in smoky volcanic springs in the middle of the snow.

The scientists take years observing his behavior and have seen them, for example, playing at forming and throwing snowballs his partners just as a children's panda. Also there is popular the anecdote that happened in the island of Koshima in 1952, when a group of scientists began giving him to the monkeys sweet potatoes, which they were dropping in the sand of the beach. To the macaques they liked the flavor of those raw tubers, but not so much the sand. A female of 18 months of age, called Imo, discovered that it could solve the problem washing the potatoes in the sea. It taught the trick to his mother. His playmates also learned the new method and it was taught to his respective mothers. The cultural innovation was learned gradually by tens monkeys before the astonished look of the scientists.

Streaming The Amazing Race S16E05 I Think We're Fighting the Germans, Right? now