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The snow monkeys of Japan live further north
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than any other nonhuman primate.
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And one troop has become downright famous
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because they're the only monkeys in the world
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to spend hours in the winter soaking in hot springs.
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Only recently, scientists have started investigating
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the behavior of the macaques.
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But before we get to that, here's a brief history
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of how a group of macaques developed the hot tub habit
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in the first place.
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Macaques live all over Japan.
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But this group's home is near Nagano,
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where the winter temperatures are often below freezing,
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but the landscape is sprinkled with natural hot springs.
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But it wasn't until 1963,
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so the story goes, that a monkey first joined human visitors
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in a hotel bathing pool.
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Of course, one macaque in the pool
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soon became many macaques, which upset the humans.
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The solution: build a park and hot spring bathing pools
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just for the monkeys.
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Happy monkeys, happy humans.
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The macaques soon became an attraction,
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drawing more attention and more visitors
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to the mountains of Nagano.
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Back to the present.
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Researchers are now focusing on why the monkeys bathe.
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Probably to stay warm, but that's just an assumption.
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Since cold causes stress, increasing levels of hormones
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called glucocorticoids,
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scientists tested levels of these hormones in the monkeys.
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They didn't draw blood or collect saliva.
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They collected and tested feces.
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And since the monkeys are so used to human tourists,
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they paid no attention to the researchers.
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As suspected, stress levels were lower during periods
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when the macaques were bathing.
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Interestingly, the higher-ranking females
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had more access to the pool and more time bathing.
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Takeshita herself found a kind of nonscientific inspiration
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in the monkey bathing.
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Many times after coming back from the field
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I would go to hot springs.
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They also show how a small group of animals
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can develop a unique behavior, their own kind of culture,
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passed down from generation to generation.
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I wonder what they think about while they soak.