The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

[Andrew Hund <axh69 AT po.cwru.edu>]

http://www.asahi.com/english/tenjin/K2003090400250.html

A leadership change took place this summer at the Hagachizaki-en wild 
monkey park in Shizuoka Prefecture. The No. 2 and No. 4 monkeys reportedly 
toppled the old boss.

Over the years, it is said, leadership changes at this park have often been 
accompanied by similar political shifts in Tokyo. Does this mean an ominous 
fate is in store for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who is seeking 
re-election as president of the Liberal Democratic Party this month. Or 
even the long reign of the LDP itself?

The world of monkeys has several formulas for succession to the leadership. 
Kojima island in Miyazaki Prefecture is known for ``boss'' monkeys serving 
a lifetime tenure. In the latest succession, a second-ranking monkey named 
Kemushi moved up to the top in 1999 after Noso, the boss who was older than 
90 in human years, dropped out of sight, presumably dead from general 
prostration. There have been revolts, but they all ended in failure. And 
so, power is said to have been changing hands peacefully on the island.

Things are not that simple at Takasaki-yama natural zoo in Oita Prefecture 
where about 2,000 monkeys live. There are three factions named A, B and C, 
each with its own leader. Monkeys eat according to an order based on the 
relative power of the faction to which they belong.

About 10 years ago, the A faction, whose members were always the first to 
show up at the feeding places as the prerogative of belonging to the 
largest group, was brought down from the top by the C faction, which was 
the smallest bloc at that time. Apparently, the A group had it coming. Its 
boss and the second-ranking monkey were not getting along, resulting in an 
internal dispute over the succession issue.

Members of the A faction stopped showing up at the feeding areas last year, 
perhaps still reeling from the setback they had suffered.
The latest theories seem to agree that wild monkeys do not have bosses. 
They reason that the fact that monkeys find something to eat here and there 
makes it unnecessary to establish a strict hierarchy.

On the other hand, monkeys fed by people need a hierarchy because they have 
limited amounts of food to eat and only at certain places.

Certainly, there is a close resemblance between human society in which 
people engage in power struggles over the limited access to vested 
interests and the limited posts and the groups of monkeys living on food 
provided by human beings.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Sept. 3(IHT/Asahi: September 4,2003)