Monkeys Warm Themselves with Bonfire at Japan Monkey Center in Aichi Pref.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

10:23 JST, December 22, 2023

Monkeys warm themselves by a fire, grooming and cuddling each other, at the Japan Monkey Center in Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture, on Wednesday, in a pre-event of annual winter bonfire making for the monkeys. Although monkeys are usually afraid of fire, the rare annual event started in the winter of 1959 when Yakushima macaques were observed gathering around a fire built with driftwood from when the nation was hit by Isewan Typhoon earlier that year. The special bonfire will be held on Saturdays, Sundays, national holidays and the first three days of the new year until Jan. 28.