Found on the Shimokita Peninsula in Aomori Prefecture, the Japanese macaque lives further north than any other monkey.

In the mountains, where winter temperature can drop to minus 15 Celcius, the monkeys journey all over in search of food. Subsisting on a winter diet of tree bark and bamboo leaves, both low in nutritional value, they have to eat constantly in order to survive. Yet even in these unforgiving conditions, they somehow manage to thrive.

A version of this film was first broadcast as an episode of Amazing Animals in Japan in January 1998.