Japanese Macaques in South Texas: History, Habitat, and Conservation

Japanese macaques, commonly known as snow monkeys, are native to Japan, but a population has lived in South Texas since the 1970s. These primates’ thick fur enables them to withstand harsh winters and ranges in color from shades of gray to yellowish brown to brown. They have hairless faces and pinkish-red posteriors. Males are taller and heavier than females. The average male weighs approximately twenty-five pounds and stands almost two feet tall, while the average female weighs roughly eighteen pounds and stands approximately twenty inches tall. Japanese macaques reside in the subtropical to subalpine deciduous and evergreen forests on three of Japan's four main islands (Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu) and a few smaller islands, including the mountainous region known as Arashiyama near Kyoto. There are two subspecies of the primates—M. f. fuscata and M. f. yuakui. M. f. fuscata, the mainland subspecies, was the one brought to Texas; M. f. yuakui is restricted to the island of Yakushima.

In 1966 the troop of monkeys in Arashiyama had grown to between 150 and 200 members and soon broke into two smaller groups, Arashiyama A-troop and B-troup. The A-troop extended its range into the suburbs of Kyoto, and the primates were regarded as a nuisance to residents there. After six years of searching for a new home, to save them from destruction in Kyoto, the troop known as Arashiyama A, consisting of approximately 150 animals, was transferred to a ranch near Encinal in La Salle County in South Texas in 1972. Many transplanted primates died in the unfamiliar dry brush country during the early years. The U.S. government listed the monkeys as threatened in 1976.The Japanese macaques, however, eventually adapted to their new environment and learned to forage for the readily available cactus fruits, mesquite beans, and other foods.

In 1980 the South Texas Primate Observatory purchased the primates and moved them to a ranch near Dilley in Frio County, where they resided in an enclosed ranch-style environment and could roam with minimum human interference.

By the late 1980s the South Texas population of Japanese macaques had increased to more than 500. The monkeys' enclosure fell into disrepair because of a lack of funding and several escaped. No longer enclosed within physical barriers, the primate population ranged over 250 acres of brush country ranchland and foraged on native vegetation, row crops, and feed pilfered from area ranches and farms. Neighbors called the authorities to complain about feral monkeys damaging property outside the observatory. Even though the troop's leader was reportedly killed by a wild cat (a bobcat or cougar), the population remained between 500 and 600 individuals. The troop had to be relocated on two more occasions until it finally ended up on another site in Dilley that became known as the Texas Snow Monkey Sanctuary.

In 1994 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ruled that the Dilley troop of macaques was not a protected species, and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department confirmed that there was no state or federal law prohibiting the shooting of feral macaques because they were classified as an "exotic unprotected species." At this time the U.S. Department of Agriculture pressured for improvements to the Dilley facility and cited its failures to provide adequate housing for the snow monkeys or to build a secure perimeter fence. Public outcry arose in 1996 when hunters shot four escaped macaques, and there were calls for a new sanctuary. Consequently, entertainer Wayne Newton hosted a fundraiser in San Antonio to raise awareness and money for their cause.

Eventually a new 185-acre sanctuary, the Texas Snow Monkey Sanctuary, near Dilley was established. The larger more secure facility consisted of an electrified enclosure where the macaques could forage through vegetation, sleep in trees, swim in water tanks, and exist within a social unit. The Animal Protection Institute assumed management of the Texas Snow Monkey Sanctuary in 1999. In 2007 Animal Protection Institute merged with the wildlife charity Born Free USA. By the mid-2020s the sanctuary, known as Born Free USA Primate Sanctuary, had expanded its focus beyond caring for just the snow monkeys to providing a haven for various species (approximately eleven) of rescued monkeys. The rescued primates included other species of macaques and baboons and came from private homes, research laboratories, and roadside zoos.

Japanese macaques have been sighted outside of Dilley and the South Texas brush country of Dimmit, Frio, and La Salle counties. In 1998 a group of mammalogy students reported a sighting in Kerr County west of the Kerr Wildlife Management Area. Hunting of monkeys in Texas is strictly prohibited.