The Guardian reports that Yakei, a female macaque who lives on the nature reserve on the island of Kyushu, kicked a bunch of ass and established herself as the new official "alpha" of her troop.
Yakei's path to the top began in April when she beat up her own mother to become the alpha female of the troop at the Takasakiyama natural zoological garden in Oita city. While that would have been the pinnacle for most female monkeys, Yakei decided to throw her 10kg weight around among the males.
In late June, she challenged and roughed up Sanchu, the 31-year-old alpha male who had been leader of "troop B" at the reserve for five years.
Surprised wardens at Takasakiyama, where there has never been a female monkey boss in the reserve's 70-year history, carried out a "peanut test" on 30 June, putting out nuts for the group and seeing who ate first. Sanchu backed away and gave Yakei first dibs on the treat, confirming her alpha status.
Since showing Sanchu who's the #Ladyboss, Yakei has been seen shaking trees and struttin' around with her tail up, which are apparently signs of domination.
Obligatory caveat that there may have been female macaques who claimed alpha status but went un-observed by humans. I also recognize that humans are known to project some weird misunderstanding onto the concept of "alpha" animals (although that may just be for wolves? IDK). This is still pretty neat though!
Macaques at Japan reserve get first alpha female in 70-year history [Gavin Blair / The Guardian]
Image: Public Domain via NeedPix
