野生ニホンザルが加害する農作物・林産物

抄録

We studied the crop species damaged by wild Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata), including those found in orchards and forests, as well as garden plants, grain crops, and vegetables, to estimate the number of crop species damaged by this species across Japan. This information is useful for fundamental and applied studies of this species. Through a web and library search, we collected 488 datasets from 461 articles from 43 (out of 47) Japanese prefectures wherein macaques inhabit. The number of articles in eastern Japan, where crop raiding by macaques has become severe since the 1980s, was significantly greater than that of articles in western Japan. Macaques fed on 179 crop items, including garden plants (29 items), orchard crops (38 items), grain crops (8 items), pasture (5 items), beans (8 items), vegetables (62 items), forestry crops (7 items), and other crops (22 items). Notably, the number of damaged crop species substantially varied among the prefectures, possibly due to differences in terms of the extent of countermeasures against crop raiding by macaques. To discuss the regional variation in the preference for specific crop species, quantitative and qualitative data should be standardized among the prefectures. The information on the crops damaged by macaques is generally retrieved from government reports, which are only retained for a short period; therefore, digital archiving is necessary for their future use. In addition, we discuss future challenges about the use of information on the diet of crop-raiding macaques. Moreover, we emphasize the importance of collaboration between researchers of fundamental and applied research.