Special seminars on the “Present Situation of Japanese Macaques” were held four times between 1990-1993 and were aimed at making clear the situation of wild populations of Japanese macaques and establishing definite proposals for future management. The discussion in these seminars was summarized. In nearly half of the prefectures in Japan surveys of wild Japanese macaques were being conducted in some way. Recently, in most areas, macaques started to appear near cultivated fields and may be changing their behavior towards human beings, because they had usually fled in former days. It was reported that: some populations of Japanese macaques shifted themselves from the deep interior of mountains to be close to villages; the range of the groups became larger when they moved to fields to raid crops; the number of laborers decreased rapidly in the past two decades and their age became higher in Japanese agricultural villages which may be the principal factor allowing monkeys come closer to the field; hunting prohibited since 1947 may have affected the monkeys behavioral changes; the habitat disturbance (especially large-scaled plantation of coniferous trees in the mountain) might have induced the shift of monkey populations and so on. In Japan the organization of and/or persons monitoring the wildlife on a daily basis are scarcely available and the need for such organization or systems to make it realized was strengthened. Some other necessities are also mentioned.

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The grid cell maps with 5km cell resolution were generated from the plotting distribution maps of Japanese monkey (Macaca fuscata) in 1923 (Iwano 1974; Amagasa & Ito 1978) and 1978 (Environment Agency 1981), respectively. The local populations were identified by the GIS processor “MAP II” that clumped with grid cells at 15km clumping distance. Fifty and 44 local populations were appeared from the distribution of Japanese monkey in 1923 and 1978, respectively. As compare the grid cell map in 1923 and 1978, 16 local populations were disappeared, seven were shrank, seven were divided into 24 small clumps, 19 were expanded and combined to 11 larger clumps, one local population did not change in clump size, and one new local population was discovered in 1978. The cell size of the 16 disappeared local populations were less than 10 cells.

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There are several Japanese monkey troops in Shiga Heights, and violent exploitation of timber-felling and skii resort are going to give strong pressure to ecology of Japanese monkeys.
Since 1944s', in Shiga Heights cuttover area was expanded, and since 1960s' skii resort exploitation was promoted. Monkey and other wildlife habitats, therefore, became divided into small-sized areas and shrunk. Artificial provisioning for monkeys was done by sightseers in indefinite places, then original monkey ecology was strongly disturbed. And then, some monkey troops got down their home ranges, took crops along the foot-hills, and a part of the monkeys was eliminated. Such types of exploitation completed with the establishment of skii cources and other related facilities in Yakebitai Mt. in 1985. And, recently there is a more activity to develop Iwasuge Mt. as skii resort under the pretext of 1998 Nagano Winter Olympic Games.
On the other hand, conservation system in Shiga Heights is very poor, Shiga Heights were covered totally through National Park which have functions of conservation and exploitation, and the national park in Shiga Heights was rather promoting the side of sightseeing development. MAB reserve was set up there, but its core area is very small sized (742ha), and buffer zone (11, 850ha) is covered on totally exploited area as skii resort. In 1994, Saburyu Forest Ecosystem Conservation Area (12, 792ha) was set up in the northern part of Shiga Heights.
Although monkeys were eliminated by the appeal for monkey damage to crop production, there is no any judgement for the effect of monkey elimination. Wildlife management study must be done to adjust conflict between monkey ecology and human activity, and conservation area and its policy must be established on the base of wildlife management study.

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During surveys in 1989-93, 23-28 groups, or 750-890 monkeys, were confirmed living in the western district of Aichi Prefecture. Until the mid-1950s, no crop-raiding was reported in the area. It was found that the distribution of Japanese macaques gradually expanded along the river systems downward from the deep inside of the higher mountains. Japanese macaques began to appear more often and nearer to crop fields. As years passed by, the damage to crops became more severe. Social changes in agricultural villages, especially mass emigrations and rapid advancement in the age of farming workers within the past forty years, may be closely associated with changes in the distribution and behavior of Japanese macaques. The mechanisms by which recent changes occurred in local populations of Japanese macaques are discussed.

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Over six thousands Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) have been killed or trapped each year since 1990 as “agricultural pests”. Biological data such as reproductive parameters, however, have as yet hardly been collected from those individuals killed for the purpose of population management. We provide a manual for the basic techniques of age determination, body size measurement, evaluation of reproductive and nutritional conditions, sample collection and preservation. We also propose a plan to construct a data-base from these data.

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Questionnaire surveys have been made sporadically since 1973 in the southern Chugoku district. In some areas wild monkeys were observed directly and/or studied in more detail by asking local people. The results are presented here and compared with those of Hasebe (1923), Kishida (1950) and Takeshita (1962). The description in an older document, Bohchoh-Fudoki (1841), is also referred to in the case of Yamaguchi Prefecture.

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Distributions of wild Japanese macaques and actual damages to crops by them in Kinki region are reported. Questionnaire surveys were conducted in Wakayama, Nara, Kyoto and Shiga prefectures. From the surveys, the following results were obtained. 1) Japanese macaques damaged the crops mainly in autumn when the harvest time of them. 2) The macaques appeared crop fields usually in groups. 3) They usually disappeared from the fields when they saw humans. 4) Twenty-nine crop items were damaged by the macaques. 5) The inhabitants did not usually devise countermove to the damages. Field surveys were also conducted in those areas according to the results of the questionnaire surveys. In Wakayama prefecture, 8 groups were suspected to forage in Kanaya town and Nakatsu and Miyama villages, and 8 groups were seemed to forage in Ryujin village. In Nara prefecture, more than 10 groups were suspected to forage in Ohtoh and Totsukawa villages. Also several groups were suspected to forage in each town or village in northern Kyoto and western Shiga. Further intensive studies are necessary to clarify the relationships between human activities and the damages to crop by Japanese macaques and to solve this problem.

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The purpose of the present survey was to investigate the awareness of the public on the problems arising from provisioning. The social problems of provisioned wild Japanese macaques happens throughout Japan including Yakushima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture. A questionnaire was given to residents in Yakushima and to tourists visiting. Responses were obtained from 438 people. The results may be summarized as follows: (a) The majority of people questioned were aware of some of the social problems in wild Japanese macaques caused by provisioning. (b) Many people gave wild monkeys food for reasons of amusement and in the belief that it improved their situation. This questionnaire revealed that the public understood some of the issues described above but their actions appeared to contradict this. Consequently there is a need to develop a better understanding on the influence of man particularly in regard to feeding.

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There is more to the conservation of wild animals than keeping individual species alive. It is also necessary to maintain their ecological relationships with other plants and animals, relationships with others of their own species and natural patterns of behaviors. This paper deals with methods of vegetation rehabilitation to conserve wildlife ecology, especially for large forest mammals. The first step for the rehabilitation is to compare the natural habitat and ecology of the animal with the intended conservation area. The second step is to rehabilitate the vegetation of the target area by logging and planting so that it comes to resemble the natural habitat. In some case, some economic activities also can coexist in the area. The final step involves monitoring the habitat and ecology of the animal in the rehabilitated area.

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The local population of Japanese macaques has been surveyed sporadically by researchers. We compiled data on local populations in the southern Kanto district (Chichibu, Okutama, Daibosatsu, Mitsu-Toge, Tanzawa, Hakone, Ashitakayama, and Izu Peninsula) to evaluate their present status. In addition, the criteria for evaluating the status of local populations is presented.

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