YAMAGATA, Nov 15 (News On Japan) –
Zao’s iconic snow monsters, the frost-covered timber generally known as ‘juhyo,’ face an existential menace. These towering, snow-laden timber have lengthy been a winter spotlight within the area, famously resembling monstrous figures lined in snow. Nevertheless, their survival is now underneath extreme menace.
A specialist in juhyo, Yamagata College Professor Emeritus Fumitaka Yanagisawa, warns of the approaching threat: “If issues proceed this fashion, the snow monsters will ultimately stop to kind.”
Evaluating the identical interval in 2012 and 2023, current juhyo formations seem noticeably thinner. Opposite to what one may count on, the trigger just isn’t a scarcity of snowfall.
Yanagisawa explains, “What we’re seeing is an entire die-off. When the leaves disappear, solely the branches are left. Then, because the branches snap off, all that is still is the trunk.”
The branches, important for accumulating and retaining snow, have been dying off, rendering them incapable of forming juhyo.
Pictures evaluating the identical timber from 13 years in the past reveal that most of the branches have vanished, leaving solely the tree trunks. The perpetrator behind the die-off seems to be a pest infestation, influenced by local weather change.
Yanagisawa notes, “With rising temperatures, bugs discover it simpler to outlive and reproduce, probably contributing to what we’re seeing now.”
As world warming permits pest populations to thrive, the timber that kind juhyo are extra weak than ever. Nonetheless, Yanagisawa believes that there could also be options to revive these snow monsters, comparable to replanting younger timber on the mountainside and cultivating seeds to encourage future progress.
Supply: ANN
