REIGN OF NEW MONKEY QUEEN IS IN JEOPARDY
In southern Japan, a young female macaque upended societal norms by seizing control of her 677-member troop through a violent coup. Now her hard-won empire could be coming to an end. Yakei is a nine-year-old macaque living in a Japanese reserve, the Takasakiyama Natural Zoological Garden, where she has spent the last year reigning as the first female troop leader in the park’s 70-year history. After assuming the role of top female, Yakei tackled the troop’s four highest ranking males, finally assuming the troop’s coveted alpha position after beating up a 31-year-old male who had ruled the troop for five years.
Hostile takeovers by aggressive females are exceptionally rare in Japanese macaque society, with only a handful of recorded cases preceding Yakei’s coup. Macaques live in strictly hierarchical societies. A male’s rank is usually determined by how much time he has spent in a troop, while female macaques inherit the rank below their mother’s. Sometimes macaques can violently seize higher ranks. These contests are almost exclusively between males, which is why Yakei’s rise to power was shocking.
After nearly a year in the top spot, Yakei’s position may be in jeopardy during the chaos that is mating season. An 18-year-old male named Luffy has been making unwanted courtship advances on Yakei since this year’s breeding season began. Luffy could be in the process of dethroning Yakei, or this could just be a simple matter of courtship.