is a small island in the Sea of Hyūga off the shore of the city of Kushima in

Miyazaki Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Miyazaki Prefecture has a population of 1,073,054 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 7,735 km2 (2,986 sq mi). Miyazaki Prefecture borders Ōita Prefecture to the north, Kuma ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The island is approximately 13 km ESE and 20 km by road from the central built-up area of Kushima. It is approximately 300 m offshore and 30

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

s in area, and mainly forested. Kōjima is best known as housing a field study site of the Japanese

Primate Research Institute is a Japanese research center for the study of primates. It was founded in 1967 by primatologists Kinji Imanishi and Junichiro Itani. The institute works toward understanding the biological, behavioral and socioecological aspects of primates, and ...

, where

Japanese macaque The Japanese macaque (''Macaca fuscata''), also known as the snow monkey, is a terrestrial Old World monkey species that is native to Japan. Colloquially, they are referred to as "snow monkeys" because some live in areas where snow covers the gr ...

s are held in wild conditions for primatological study. The buildings of the field station are on the mainland so as to minimise disturbance of the monkeys' behaviour. Study of the monkeys began in 1947, and since 1952 all individuals have been marked so that the demographics of the population can be studied. Many investigations have been carried out, including studies of the changes that occur in social dominance over time. Kōjima is the site of one of the best-known studies in

animal culture Animal culture can be defined as the ability of non-human animals to learn and transmit behaviors through processes of social or cultural learning. Culture is increasingly seen as a process, involving the social transmittance of behavior among p ...

, in which it was reported that one monkey acquired various skills such as washing

sweet potato The sweet potato or sweetpotato (''Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the Convolvulus, bindweed or morning glory family (biology), family, Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a r ...

es in water,Kawamura, S. (1959). The process of sub-culture propagation among Japanese macaques. ''Primates, 2''(1), 43-60 and that these skills then spread through the monkey troops by

imitation Imitation (from Latin ''imitatio'', "a copying, imitation") is a behavior whereby an individual observes and replicates another's behavior. Imitation is also a form of that leads to the "development of traditions, and ultimately our culture. ...

References

External links

Pictures of Kōjima
Islands of Miyazaki Prefecture {{Miyazaki-geo-stub

See also

References

External links