page_title: Japanese macaque
section_title: Mating and parenting
hierarchical_section_title: Japanese macaque / Behavior / Mating and parenting
caption_attribution_description: 日本語: ニホンザルの交尾風景。 嵐山モンキーパークいわたやま。
context_page_description: The Japanese macaque, also known as the snow monkey, is a terrestrial Old World monkey species that is native to Japan. They get their name "snow monkey" because some live in areas where snow covers the ground for months each year – no other non-human primate is more northern-living, nor lives in a colder climate. Individuals have brownish grey fur, pinkish-red faces, and short tails. Two subspecies are known.
  In Japan, the species is known as Nihonzaru to distinguish it from other primates, but the Japanese macaque is very familiar in Japan, so when Japanese people simply say saru, they usually have in mind the Japanese macaque.
context_section_description: A male and female macaque form a pair bond and mate, feed, rest, and travel together, and this typically lasts 16 days on average during the mating season. Females enter into consortships with an average of four males a season. Higher-ranking males have longer consortships than their subordinates. In addition, higher-ranking males try to disrupt consortships of lower-ranking males. Females attempt to mate with males of any rank. However, dominant males mate more as they are more successful in mate guarding. The female decides whether mating takes place. In addition, dominance does not mean a male will successfully mate with a female. Males may also temporarily join another troop during the mating season and mate with the females. Females also engage in same-sex mounting. Such behavior is likely because of hormones and females are mounted more often by other females than males. It has been proposed that female Japanese macaques are generally bisexual, rather than preferentially homo- or heterosexual.
  During the mating season, the face and genitalia of males redden and the tail stands erect. In addition, females' faces and anogenital regions turn scarlet. Macaques copulate both on the ground and in the trees, and roughly one in three copulations leads to ejaculation. Macaques signal when they are ready to mate by looking backward over a shoulder, staying still, or walking backwards towards their potential partner. A female emits a "squawk", "squeak", or produces an atonal "cackle" during copulation. Males have no copulatory vocalizations.
  A macaque mother moves to the periphery of her troop to give birth in a secluded spot, unless the group is moving, when the female must stay with it. Macaques usually give birth on the ground. Infants are born with dark-brown hair. They consume their first solid food at five to six weeks old, and can forage independently from their mothers by seven weeks. A mother carries her infant on her belly for its first four weeks. After this time, the mother carries her infant on her back, as well. Infants continue to be carried past a year. A mother and her infant tend to avoid other troop members, and the mother may socialize again very slowly. However, alloparenting has been observed, usually by females which have not had infants of their own. Male care of infants occurs in some groups, but not in others; usually, older males protect, groom, and carry an infant as a female would.
  Infants have fully developed their locomotive abilities within three to four months. When an infant is seven months old, its mother discourages suckling; full weaning happens by its 18th month. In some populations, male infants tend to play in larger groups more often than females. However, female infants have more social interaction than their male counterparts. Males prefer to associate with other males around the same age when they are two years old. Female infants will associate with individuals of all ages and sexes.
caption: Macaques mating
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