Monkey Mountain as a Megazoo: Analyzing the Naturalistic Claims of "Wild Monkey Parks" in Japan

In Japan, yaen kōen or “wild monkey parks” are popular visitor attractions that show free-ranging monkey troops to the paying public. Unlike zoos, which display nonhuman animals through confinement, monkey parks control the movements of the monkeys through provisioning. The parks project an image of themselves as “natural zoos,” claiming to practice a more authentic form of displaying animals-in-the-wild than that practiced by the zoo. This article critically evaluates the monkey park’s claim by examining park management of the monkeys. The article shows the monkey park’s claim to display wild monkeys to be questionable because of the way that provisioning changes monkey behavior. Against the background of human encroachment onto the forest habitat of the monkey, the long-term effect of provisioning is to sedentarize nomadic monkey animals and to turn the wild monkey park into a megazoo. Zoos are institutions that claim to display nonhuman animals-in-the-wild to the public. However, one of the main criticisms of the zoo involves the denaturing effect of zoo life on animals in the zoo, arising from the displacement of the animals from their natural habitats. The philosopher Lee (2005) makes Society & Animals 14:3 (2006) © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2006 S & A 14,3_f3_244-264 7/26/06 6:27 PM Page 245