Nagano Mountains, Japan

This scene is an original illustration set in Nagano Mountains, Japan. It lies in mid-latitudes, where the climate is warm-summer humid continental.

A troop of red-faced monkeys soaks shoulder-deep in a steaming rock pool, snow resting on their heads. Tall steam plumes rise into cold air, and a dark melt ring surrounds the water. Snow-laden branches close in around the gorge.

Why do these monkeys bathe in a hot spring?

These are the northernmost non-human primates in the world, and the hot spring is how they manage it — behavioural thermoregulation rather than a physical adaptation. The melt ring shows the water is geothermal, not just sheltered. Deep snow plus abundant hot springs is the signature of a volcanic mountain range in a cold, snowy maritime climate.

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