Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) — the world's most northerly non-human primates — have gained fame for bathing in thermal springs, but tourist pressure at these sites creates welfare challenges for habituated troops.
Japanese macaques at major tourist sites experience chronic elevated stress from high visitor density, flash photography, noise, and the violation of the personal space they would maintain from humans in natural conditions. Thermal spring bathing — which thermoregulates these animals during cold winters — may be disrupted during peak tourism hours. Food provisioning that attracted macaques to tourist sites created nutritional dependence while increasing human-wildlife conflict over provisioned and anthropogenic food. The management of wildlife tourism welfare requires genuine limitation of visitor numbers and behavior rather than simply maximizing revenue. Research demonstrating elevated cortisol in highly visited troops provides the evidence base for stricter management.