Comments on: Snow monkey chillin' in a hot spring, Nagano, Japan (photo from Boing Boing Flickr Pool)

By: LeSinge

LeSinge — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

What happens when they get out? I guess I have the same question in regards to polar bears as well. How do they keep from freezing?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Jump in a hot spring with a mac-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-ak-acque
You outta know by now…

(is that all you get for your monkey?)

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve wondered the same thing since I was a kid. I often imagined a pool full of starving monkeys hoping to stick it out through Spring… surrounded by the frozen corpses of their brethren who tried to make a break for it.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Now I know where they got the idea for the rock people in Zelda: Twilight Princess!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

How long do they stay in the hot water per visit?

When not lounging in nature’s jacuzzi, how do they shelter (burrows maybe?)…

By: Chris Ballard

Chris Ballard — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Looks very relaxing, but where is the Most Interesting Man?

By: Ty_MY

Ty_MY — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Noted undersea photographer Eric Cheng has a very good album of photos on the snow monkeys when he vacationed in Japan.. Really excellent, with descriptions:

http://echeng.com/journal/2010/12/28/snow-monkeys-jigokudani-yaen-koen-japan/

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

That top picture taken just moments before a female Snow Monkey surfaces in front of him…

By: emmdeeaych

emmdeeaych — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I am still amazed that the Japanese have managed to live on a small crowded island and have collectively decided not to eat, kill, or otherwise mangle these monkeys. Based on everywhere else people live and what we do to the place once we’ve arrived, that’s a wonderful thing.

By: Bender

Bender — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Count me as number three to wonder if and for how long they get out of the water during the winter months. Somebody tell me or I’ll be forced to look into it myself, and there will go the afternoon.

By: Aloisius

Aloisius — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

may literally freeze to death.

I’m pretty certain that they won’t freeze to death from not being able to go into the hot spring.

Macaques going into hot springs is a relatively recent phenomenon (sometime in the ’70s) and not all macaques in Japan actually use the hot springs.

By: jorum

jorum — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

All those monkeys-in-hot-spring pictures were somewhat spoiled for me when I found out there are strict hierarchy rules. Low rank monkeys will be attacked for being in the “wrong” pool and the really unfortunate will not be allowed in any at all and may literally freeze to death.

By: wrybread

wrybread — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Oh man I used to love the band Monkey Lanolin. I once saw them open for Steaming Wet Monkey, which was frickin amazing.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I saw monkeys like this in an episode of Wild Kratts or whatever show the Kratt brothers do.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’m pretty certain that they won’t freeze to death from not being able to go into the hot spring.

Being expelled from the warmth when already wet is another story.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

“All those monkeys-in-hot-spring pictures were somewhat spoiled for me when I found out there are strict hierarchy rules. Low rank monkeys will be attacked for being in the “wrong” pool and the really unfortunate will not be allowed in any at all and may literally freeze to death.”

They emulate people unusually well then………

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Amazingly, it was only in 1963 that snow monkeys discovered the joys of hot springs.

I had always assumed their behaviour was countless millenia old.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Wow… They Have… Fingernails. Humanlike Fingernails. Interesting…

By: Wickedashtray

Wickedashtray — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Looks a lot like my old coke dealer.

By: riotgirl007

riotgirl007 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

We loved visiting the monkeys on our trip to Japan. You can see a photo here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/devildotbunny/3279474254/in/set-72157608601847842

You can also watch them on a Internet cam at; http://www.jigokudani-yaenkoen.co.jp/livecam/monkey/index.htm

By: Rob Cruickshank

Rob Cruickshank — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Yes, these monkeys are not always nice to each other. We watched one low-ranking monkey get a little to close to the #1 monkey, which lunged at it. It was then that we realized that “scared shitless” is not just a saying. (Just to be clear, it was the monkey that was scared. We manged to control ourselves)

By: MachineElf

MachineElf — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sure, they look relaxed. But don’t fall for it – don’t mistake apathy for relaxation! Once you’re in there…

http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/funny-pictures-hitman-monkey-drowns-boy.jpg

By: wrybread

wrybread — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

To be fair, try going to a country club or some such “high ranking” human dwelling where you’re not supposed to be, and see what happens…

By: Rob Cruickshank

Rob Cruickshank — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The monkeys don’t seem particularly cold when they get out- I think there’s enough monkey-lanolin in their fur to protect them.
Steaming wet monkey is not the greatest smell in the world, BTW.