Japanese Zoo Culls 57 Snow Monkeys Due To Mixed Genes From "Invasive Alien Species"

A menagerie in Japanhas had to cullat least a third of its nose candy monkeys after they see that the primates were carry the gene of an “ trespassing foreign species ” . It become out that what the park view were genetically pure Japanese macaques , native to the islands , were actually hybrids with the invasive rhesus macaques .

Since 2013 , after a revision of Japan ’s environment police , it has been illegalto keep or transport invasive species , include their hybrids . This meant that the 57 monkeys found to be Japanese - rhesus macaque hybrids had to be culled using lethal injections . “ They have to be kill to protect the indigenous surround , ” an official from the Chiba Prefectural Governmenttold AFP .

Nipponese macaque ( Macaca fuscata ) are endemic to Japan , and the most northerly living non - human prelate . In their mountain habitat they often encounter snowfall , which gives ascending to their other name , the snow monkey . Some population have even developed a “ hot tub civilisation ” as in the depth of wintertime the primates keep themselves toasty warm in raging springs .

The rhesus macaque ( Macaca mulatta ) , however , is wide distributed across much of Southeast Asia , and has been introduce to Japan . In a bid to protect their native wildlife , the Nipponese government activity has tried to extirpate the primates , and prevent them from interbreeding with the native snow monkeys .

It was fearedthat the crossbreed keep at the zoo might get off , let go their “ exotic ” gene into the wide population of local fantastic Japanese macaques . The step was therefore take to kill the genetically mixed monkeys , though it is not yet clear if other footstep could have been take aim , such as sterilisation .

crossbreeding can be a very real threat to native fauna   if they ofttimes encounter encroaching species . Wildcats in Scotland , for exemplar , areteetering on the verge of extinctionas it was found that they commonly crossbreed with domesticated cat . The only remaining native cat to the British Isles , there are now opine to be only a few hundred genetically pure Scots wildcats surviving in the most distant role of Scotland , and effort are underway to adjudicate and protect them further .