[Michael]

Quote

Monkeys lurking at an ancient Hindu temple in India's northeast have attacked up to 300 children over three weeks, temple officials said Tuesday.

"They hide in trees and swoop on unsuspecting children loitering about in the temple premises or walking by, clawing them and even sucking a bit of blood," Bani Kumar Sharma, a priest at the Kamakhya temple in Assam state, told The Associated Press. The temple, one of the most famous in India, is located in Gauhati, Assam's capital.

"I was returning home from school when a monkey suddenly pounced on me, scratched my head and hand and pushed me to the ground," said Jolly Sharma, a 6-year-old girl.

At least 2,000 rhesus monkeys roam in and around the temple, but none had shown aggressive behavior in the past, the priest said.

Full story...

http://asia.news.yah...http://asia.news.yahoo.com/041102/ap/d863k83o0.html

[Walter]

Sounds like overpopulation or something similar.

[Irizary]

mikie said:

Sounds like overpopulation or something similar.

I agree with you if you mean overpopulation of the humans. The monkeys may be pissed about having their home continually invaded, and seeing themselves being killed by humans, and caught for sale to labs. They are very smart animals.

There are stories about babboons stoning cars after one of their tribe is hit. Roads are being built through their territory. At this point, the problem is almost never with the animals in this world, it is with the humans who decide we are the only ones who count and we can take anything and any other creature we want for our own use.

I don't blame them for fighting back.

[Walter]

Irizary said:

I agree with you if you mean overpopulation of the humans.

It's India, of course there is overpopulation of humans, but that's not what I meant. If the humans are feeding the monkeys at the temples they're going to support an unnaturally high number of monkeys. A number that wouldn't be sustainable otherwise.

[Dirty Martini]

I was at a Hindu temple in Malaysia a couple of years ago, and though we didn't see any children being mauled, the monkeys were certainly very aggressive. They attacked a woman holding a plastic grocery sack and took all of her food. It's obvious that the monkeys know this is a reliable place & source for food.

In the article, the reference to both people dropping off pet monkeys and encroachment of human residences on the living space kind of shines light on the real problem. too bad. :( But I suppose this is kind of similar to the cases in the US & elsewhere, where mountain lions or bears wander onto people's property ... :( I suppose we'll continue to see these 'man vs. nature' stories as our population increases.

poor little guys :(

[soilman]

I could be wrong but I don't think this situation will be viewed by Indian parents with the same degree of horror and alarm that it might be, in the United States. I don't think situation will be viewed by Indian parents with the same kind of terror about one of their children being possibly harmed, and demands for authorities to exterminate all the monkeys, that it would tend to be viewed with, by many parents, in the United States.

[Irizary]

On the NEWS a couple months ago there was a story about a toddler who got scratched by a housecat and everyone was freaking out about it, so they killed the cat. I think if Indian parents were like american parents, those poor monkeys would be gone by now--most likely sitting in research labs getting tortured.

[skunkpumpkin]

Yeah, i'm actually surprised that no one has taken action to kill the monkeys. Not that that's a good choice, but it's definitely what would happen if Americans felt threatened. weird.

[catgurrl978]

Irizary said:

On the NEWS a couple months ago there was a story about a toddler who got scratched by a housecat and everyone was freaking out about it, so they killed the cat. I think if Indian parents were like american parents, those poor monkeys would be gone by now--most likely sitting in research labs getting tortured.

WHAT? I get scratched by my cats all the time and I did as a kid too and the response was "Well don't touch the cat then!" or "Oh you'll be fine." What's wrong with the world?

Anyway... The monkey story is very odd...