In Rural Fukushima, 'The Border Between Monkeys And Humans Has Blurred'

"Shuichi Kanno rips tape off the top of a large cardboard box at his house in the mountains in Fukushima prefecture in Japan. He opens the box and rustles around to pull out pack after pack of long, thin Roman candle fireworks. The words "Animal Exterminating Firework" are written in Japanese on the side of each canister."

"Kanno has been battling hordes of macaque monkeys that have encroached upon his neighborhood in a rural area of Minamisoma. These fireworks are his main deterrent — not to cause the monkeys any physical harm, but to scare them away with a loud bang. That is, until they regain their confidence and come back a few days later, which they do like clockwork, Kanno says."

"'In the early morning while I'm sleeping, just when I'm about to wake up, I hear the noise,' the 79-year-old says in Japanese as he stacks the fireworks on his living room table. 'The sound of the monkeys running around on the roof, getting into the gardens, eating all my food. I have to fight them.'"