Monkeys get their own bridge.
KUROBE, Toyama -- Japan now has its first publicly funded monkey suspension bridge, the latest ploy undertaken as part of the 27 million yen the government has funneled into projects aiming to combat simians stealing crops here.
The 137-meter-long bridge across the Unazuki Dam in the Kurobe Gorge is aimed at allowing Japanese macaques access to both banks of the body of water and getting back to their old turf.
Locals hope the bridge will stop the marauding macaques from stealing their crops.
"It's a battle of wits between humans and monkeys," a local resident said. "I hope the bridge will stop them coming down to places where humans are living."
Completion of the dam in 2001 created a new lake that prevented monkeys from getting to their traditional feeding grounds.
The monkeys responded by heading into inhabited areas and stealing crops.
Since then, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has spent about 27 million yen in taxpayers' money on projects aimed at stopping monkeys from eating food being grown in the area.
Hisaaki Akaza, 51, a teacher at the Yuho Prefectural High School, suggested the idea of building the bridge, saying that people needed to accept that they were responsible for causing the damage monkeys had created. (Mainichi Shimbun, May 21, 2005)
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