Photo of the Day #36: Snow Monkey

This is one of my favorite shots of the Snow Monkeys (Macaca fuscata, also known as Japanese Macaques) resident at the Central Park Zoo in New York. While most primates are tropical to subtropical in their ranges, Snow Monkeys (as they name would imply) are the furthest north in the Northern Hemisphere, classically being filmed and photographed in naturally occurring hot springs to occasionally escape the cold snow of the alpine habitats of Japan. These are also the monkeys famously known for washing their food, one female taken to washing sweet potatoes in the water before eating them eventually passing the behavior on to the rest of the group (made easier by the fact that Snow Monkey societies are made up of multi-male, multi-female groups where males disperse and females remain together, linked through matrilineal relations).