Given that agricultural damage caused by Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) are serious nationwide, prompt damage control is required. To ensure effective damage control, it is necessary to gain an understanding of the home range use of crop-raiding troops. To date, however, relatively few studies have sought to determine such home range usage. In this study, we investigated the types of vegetation used by crop-raiding macaque troops inhabiting Shiga, Tokushima, and Ehime prefectures. Analysis of the data recorded by GPS collars attached to individuals in seven troops revealed that crop-raiding troops were less likely to venture into farmland. However, for all monitored troops, more than 50% of the total positioning data were derived from forested areas (including bamboo forest) within 70 m of farmland, with a higher percentage being recorded in Shiga than in either Tokushima or Ehime. Furthermore, we found that when crop-raiding troops were detected in farmland, the shortest distance to forest was in most cases within 50 m, although distances tended to be longer in Shiga than in Tokushima and Ehime. On the basis of these observations, we thus established that crop-raiding troops tended to remain within forested areas in the vicinity of farmland, and that those distributed in Shiga Prefecture were characterized by bolder use of farmland than were those found in Tokushima and Ehime prefectures. Consequently, we predict that control measures targeting the areas surrounding farmlands would contribute to reducing the agricultural damage attributable to macaques.

The distance that the Kurodani A group of Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) maintained from forest edge while foraging was surveyed in Ishikawa Prefecture from September to December 2019. The distance increased as the season progressed. The macaques ate mainly rice grains, persimmons, and herbs, regardless of the distance of the food from forest edge, implying that the seasonal change in distance was a response to changes in both the distribution of major foods and the dangers posed by humans. Generalized linear models did not detect any influence of sex and age class on the distance. However, compared to macaques in the other sex and age classes, adult females without accompanying infants tended to venture into open fields much more often than expected, whereas adult females with infants did so much less often than expected, implying that the presence of infants influenced macaque behavior. By clarifying how individual macaques recognize danger in the “landscape of fear” in farmland and villages, and how they subsequently respond, we can better understand the feeding strategy of this species and how to prevent the damage that they cause.

Information on the food habits of wild Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) is typically obtained from behavioral observation. Dietary information obtained from feces, for which few Japanese primatologists have paid attention, is also useful. Collecting information on dietary habits through both fecal analyses and behavioral observation enables us to understand the value of both methods in assessing their ability to obtain dietary information. If we apply this relational equation to unhabituated animals, such as crop feeding ones, we can estimate the feeding behavior of unhabituated animals through the fecal analyses. To test this idea, we analyzed fecal contents of well-habituated wild Japanese macaques from which we had also obtained behavioral data. We then preliminarily conducted statistical modeling for the consumption of target food categories from fecal contents. For most feeding parts, we found that presence of the target category in fecal samples positively affected % value of that food in the diet. Models obtained for bark and flowers were well-fitted, while models for other main items (leaves, berries, nuts, and herbs) were less well fitted. This is likely due to differences in the effectiveness of detecting different food contents with these two methods. In the case of nuts, their higher digestibility could affect detectability leading to a reduction in the models precision. Our study confirmed the effectiveness of fecal analyses as a tool for evaluating feeding behavior, but we need to consider other factors (such as digestibility and season) to improve the accuracy of this model.

In order to implement effective countermeasures against agricultural damage caused by wildlife, which has become a social issue around the world, fostering the active participation of local residents and gaining the understanding of those who do not have a direct interest in the issue are important factors. In this study, quantitative text analysis of weekly activity reports by non-residents and interviews to residents were conducted to clarify the influence of non-residents on the mindsets of residents in an area of Osaka where agricultural damage caused by Japanese macaques is occurring. Although residents' mindsets were highly dependent on the assistance from the local government in the initial phase of this study, their self-reliance and mutual-assistance mindsets were gradually strengthened through the implementation of measures in cooperation with non-residents. This study shows the process of changing the mindset of residents through the participation of people who are not involved in animal damage countermeasures. In particular, the study suggests that incomplete planning by non-specialists may increase the active participation of residents.