Posted on 01/24/2022 11:35:38 AM PST by Red Badger
The young female fought her own mother and 4 top-ranking males to seize control of her troop.
In southern Japan, a young female macaque has upended societal norms by seizing control of her 677-member troop through a violent primate coup. Now, her hard-won empire could come crumbling down around her due to one unstoppable force: mating season.
Meet Yakei, a 9-year-old female living in a Japanese macaque reserve called the Takasakiyama Natural Zoological Garden, where she has spent the last year reigning as the first female troop leader in the park's 70-year history.
A New York Times article published Jan. 21 chronicles the monkey matriarch's incredible rise to power: After assaulting her own mother and assuming the role of top female in the troop, Yakei embarked on a violent vendetta against her troop's four highest-ranking males, finally assuming the troop's coveted alpha position after beating up Nanchu — an elderly, 31-year-old male who had ruled the troop for five years.
Hostile takeovers by aggressive females are exceptionally rare in Japanese macaque society, with only a handful of recorded cases preceding Yakei's coup, Yu Kaigaishi, a research fellow at the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, told The New York Times.
Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) — also known as snow monkeys for their habit of basking in hot springs when the weather gets snowy — live in strictly hierarchical societies, Kaigaishi explained; higher-ranking monkeys get greater access to food and mates. A male's rank is usually determined by how much time he has spent in a particular troop (males tend to leave the troop they were born into after reaching puberty), while female macaques inherit the rank just below their mother's. Sometimes, macaques can violently seize higher ranks.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Or Big Mike.
Well they said FEMALE. So Big Mike couldn’t be the one.
I was looking for Pelosi the queen of monkeys too.
That one is great!!
I stole it right here on FR!
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