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Tree Climbing of Japanese Snow Monkeys via Handy Bamboo Pole

Two bamboo poles had been propped against the thick trunk of a giant old tree of Kaki Persimmon (Diospyros kaki, family Ebenaceae) at the edge of a crop field. Japanese monkeys (aka snow monkey; Macaca fuscata fuscata, family Cercopithecidae) repeatedly used a stable one of those handy bamboo poles to climb up the kaki tree and foraged for ripe fruits remaining in the leafless branches. This behaviour is not a case of intelligent tool use (like a ladder) but use of environmental structure. The monkeys simply used the bamboo pole as a convenient foothold to climb the thick trunk of the kaki tree. Captured with my old trailcam in the daytime of mid- and late-January 2025 in Japan. For a full story (text in Japanese); https://sigma-nature-vlog.blogspot.com/2026/04/blog-post_951.html