Monthly Photos　September 2020

Photos taken by ILCAA staff and associates are posted here once a month; most of them are taken during their field research in Asia and Africa.

(The copyright belongs to the photographers.)

Yakushima macaques taking shelter in the rain

Japanese macaques are widely distributed in the Japanese archipelago from Shimokita Peninsula, Aomori Prefecture in the north to Yakushima Island in the south. Yakushima is located about 60 km south of Cape Sata, the Osumi Peninsula, the southernmost point of Kyushu. The Japanese macaques in Yakushima have been designated as a subspecies (Yakushima macaques). The Yakusima macaques have been studied since the 1950s, with preliminary researches conducted by Shunzo Kawamura and Junichiro Itani.
The novel "Ukigumo" authored by Fumiko Hayashi has the line "It rains 35 days a month in Yakushima.” When it rains heavily, monkeys sometimes take shelter in the hollows of rocks or under the shade of trees. I saw the monkeys taking shelter from the rain. The monkeys saw me standing in the rain.

14 Feb 2011
The western area of Yakushima Island, Kagoshima Prefecture
Photograph by Haruka TANIGUCHI