Japanese macaques — famous for hot spring bathing — have complex social and thermal needs that require careful management in captivity and face emerging wild threats.
Japanese macaque welfare spans wild, semi-wild, and captive contexts, each presenting distinct challenges. In captivity, the critical welfare requirements are complex social housing, thermal refugia (heated areas), and cognitive enrichment reflecting their naturally inquisitive behavior. At tourist provisioning sites, welfare is compromised by overcrowding, disease transmission, and stress from constant human proximity. In the wild, urban-agricultural conflict drives lethal management — a welfare and ethical challenge that benefits from community-based coexistence programs rather than culling. Conservation breeding programs must maintain natural social structures to preserve behavioral and social welfare.