The infamous spas of Japan are not only attractive to us humans, our monkey relatives have also come to appreciate them. The Japanese Macaque (日本猿 in Japanese), the northern most non-human primate in the world, thrives in the Hell Valley of Nagano, Japan （長野の地獄谷、日本）. During the blasting blizzards of winter, monkeys in the area gather at these volcanic springs for warmth, soaking in the waters. Not only that, this intelligent species wash their food before they eat. Experiments and observations have shown that these animals wash the sand away from their sweet potatos at the seaside before consumption, making them the only non-human primate to do that, and one of the 3 animals in the world to adopt this ingenius solution, the other two being humans and raccoons.
Below is a segment from the last installment of BBC's "Life", showcasing their perculiar behaviour: Enjoy!
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