Originally published at: Female monkey makes history as first ever Ladyboss of a troop of 700 macaques | Boing Boing
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Okay, this annoyed me enough to make me reregister for this comment. There has been at least one troop headed by a female. It’d be in the journal “Primates”, where the majority of the earlier Japanese macaque research was published. It may be the troop at Motoo (so?) but I read these nearly forty years ago.
I know it’s not your fault you pre spreading false info… well, actually it is. Sure, it started with the people who tried to get more publicity for their interesting study by overstating their findings, but you don’t have to help them do it.
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Hi and welcome to Boing Boing, apparent macaques lover.
The authors here are human, and therefore fallible. Mistakes happen.
Thankfully, this particular post is about something trivial that has little capacity to negatively affect people’s lives… unlike, say ‘spreading false info’ about the pandemic - now that would be something to really get all irate about.
Just suggesting having a little perspective.
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Surprised wardens at Takasakiyama, where there has never been a female monkey boss in the reserve’s 70-year history,
Article doesn’t claim that this was the first time ever that any troop had a matriarch. But I’m guessing that you aren’t bothered by that detail
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Interesting that this little tidbit seems to have been overlooked by our new comrade:
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I don’t know if I’ve met any humans who could handle taking charge of that many unruly primates but if there’s anyone who could manage it then it would be a woman with a background in child care.
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Also university Department Chairs.
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A second welcome to BB. I do not believe Thom is a primatologist, and so might be unfamiliar with a 40 yo article.
I believe there would be more than a handful of people interested in that article, though (myself included), so if you are ever able to find it and post it, I am sure it would be read with interest by some in the community.
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If it has been observed before, the primatoloogists can read the perhaps decades old article, and build on those observations.
It also annoyed me, at first. I read the headline as ‘the first time ever a female has headed a troupe’. Not this troupe, which it turns out was what it refers to. I thought: that’s a hyperbolic claim, as nobody can know that it has never happened before. Turns out it was just a clumsily worded headline. And thanks for noting there is at least one other cited case.
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Leaving aside the various (mostly trivial) annoyances in some of the comments so far, let’s talk about the really, really annoying thing about this post - that “News Time” video! JHC on a pogo stick, is this the future of news?
Auto-captioned from the voiceover - tick
Chunks of stock footage tangentially related to the story (Santa on a green screen? WTF?) - tick
Absolutely no footage at all from Mt Takasaki? - huge tick!
Be in no doubt, this is not Takasakiyama:
This is:
And at the time I visited (2017) I believe this was Sanchu, who was vanquished by the fair Yakei:
(although I can’t be 100% sure, as noted Yakei has taken over ‘troop B’, there are 2 troops of macaques, one 700 strong and the other 800 strong.)
It really is an amazing place, the idea behind the nature reserve project was to feed them so that they don’t raid local farmers crops, this has worked well since 1953 when they first opened. Feeding time is quite something:
People stand along the rail with their feet apart, apparently if one of the macaques run between your legs it’s considered lucky!
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First, though, Yakei had to depose her mother.
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I wonder what her mother’s evidence consisted of?
(Apologies.)
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I’m thinking K through 12 school teachers. Also horrible memories of Sister Wilfreda and her 16" hardwood ruler.
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- Seize control of the troupe.
- Commandeer a ship.
- PIRATE QUEEN.
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Anakin: Dude, I wouldn’t mess with that one. She’s crazy.
Padme: It’s not like she beat up her own mother, right?
Anakin:
Padme: It’s not like she beat up her own mother, right?
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fair cop, banged to rights, my apologies for being rather dismissive above…
In my defence, the red mist had descended upon me when I saw that so-called ‘news’ video and it was making everything else recede into the background. 
On an unrelated topic, I wish I had your skill and speed with th’ gifs - a reaction for every occasion 
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Understandable, though BB is not a news site (it’s a blog), nor is much of the content posted here “news.”
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