Using Persuasive Communication to Promote Responsible Inbound Tourism: The Case of the Snow Monkeys

2020 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K11889
• Research Institution: Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University
• Principal Investigator: JONES THOMAS 立命館アジア太平洋大学, アジア太平洋学部, 准教授 (50611745)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: wildlife tourism

Outline of Annual Research Achievements

Wildlife tourism is a growing global market but the presence of humans has negative impacts for primates as park managers struggle to educate the increasing inbound visitors.　This project reviewed Interactions at some of Japan’s longest-running monkey parks thought to host some of the planet’s largest troop of uncaged Macaques. Despite the name Takasakiyama Natural Zoo (TNZ), macaques can be viewed by visitors under free-range conditions. Provisioning began in 1947 aiming to i) mitigate crop raiding; ii) conduct primatology research; and iii) encourage tourism. Impacts of provisioning on macaques including a higher birth rate, shorter inter-birth intervals and lower infant mortality. Beyond physiological impacts, the population was affected by overfeeding that contributed to the troop’s rapid growth and subsequent fission. TNZ’s estimated monkey population in 1950 was 166, peaked in 1995 (n= 2128) before declining by 2018 (n= 1173), partly due to a ban on tourists’ purchasing snacks and hand-feeding the monkeys since 1993.