Why Snow Monkeys Take Hot Baths ???? - Video

In Japan's Jigokudani, "Hell's Valley", the world's most northern monkeys survive snowy winters well below minus 10°C. They never used to bathe. Then a young female went into a mountain inn's outdoor hot spring after an apple, and the other young monkeys copied her. They later carried their own babies in, so the park built the monkeys a hot spring of their own. Scientists have since found that soaking lowers their stress hormones, and the dominant females get first access and soak the longest.

Sources: Kyoto University press release (2018); Takeshita et al., "Beneficial effect of hot spring bathing on stress levels in Japanese macaques", Primates (2018); Smithsonian Magazine; Japan Tourism Agency; Jigokudani Yaen-koen (official site); National Geographic.
Photos (Japanese macaques at Jigokudani and nearby; the apple photo is illustrative), via Wikimedia Commons: 白士 李 (CC BY 2.0); Yiannis Theologos Michellis (CC BY-SA 2.0); Lorie Shaull (CC BY-SA 4.0); nomao saeki and Jonathan Forage (CC0); Frank Schulenburg (CC BY-SA 4.0); Abasaa and Soica2001 (public domain); Theo Crazzolara (CC BY 2.0); spDuchamp (CC BY 2.0); azkin (CC BY 2.0); ImagePerson (CC BY-SA 4.0); Bilovitskiy (CC BY 4.0); Yblieb (CC BY-SA 3.0); Ashley98lee (CC BY 4.0); Daisuke Tashiro (CC BY-SA 2.0).
Music: Mixkit "Happy and All That" by Diego Nava (Mixkit Stock Music Free License).
Narration is an AI voice. Real photos. Real story.