Oita city tries to fend off farm-raiding monkeys with drone

Aug 20, 2017 | News On Japan

Aug 20, 2017 (Japan Today) - The Oita city government in southwestern Japan is working to scare off farm-raiding wild monkeys using a drone decorated to look like a hawk -- their natural enemy.

The Tanoura district on the east side of Mt. Takasaki, where a popular monkey park is located, is known as a producer of loquats, figs and mandarins but has been suffering damage to the products caused by rogue monkeys for years, according to the city government.

"The Tanoura district is the largest producer of loquats in the prefecture. While tourism is also important, we would like to reduce the damage" to the agricultural products, said Tomohiro Anan, an official handling loquats at a local agricultural cooperative.

Around 100 monkeys which do not belong to groups appear not be fed by the monkey park that is known to be feeding wild monkeys. To compensate for losses on farm products, the city spent 5.90 million yen ($53,400) in fiscal 2015 and 3.93 million yen in fiscal 2016.

The city has so far flown a drone four times since the end of May, the harvest time for loquats.

To intimidate monkeys, the city tried to simulate a hawk hunting monkeys by hanging a stuffed monkey from a drone decorated as a hawk with fake eyes and a beak. It also played a recorded sound of screaming monkeys through a speaker.

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