Nic and Nat (BT)
- 4.30pm - arrived, 28 macaques at the bin
- bin lid held closed with locks, hole still present
- 4.40pm - STARTED RAINING, 5 macaques remaining at bin, most went to hide in trees
- 5.10pm - 0 macaques at the bin, 0 at the carpark as well
Monkey behaviour observed: (not much as it was raining)
- jumping/playing around on the roofs of houses
- trying to open dustbins
- rummaging through dustbins
- eating food from plastic bags
- eating grass, bark and leaves (after started raining, see pictures)
Interview (with residents)
Ang Moh Woman (allowed us to record the interview)
1. Are there so many macaques even on weekdays?
A: Yes they’re here every day.
2. Do the monkeys often enter your home?
A: Yes they enter my home often to look for food, or even what they think is food
3. What problems do you face regarding the monkeys?
A: They steal food, mess up my things. They also destroy things like bowls and cups. Sometimes when we forget to close the windows or something, we come back to find our glassware and porcelain smashed. Once, we discovered our sofa had a very big scratch! A lot of things go missing, like toothpaste and the washing. Many things to missing from our home if we leave the door open. They leave a lot of poop around the house. They open the bins outside, so you have to lock them in order to keep them out of the trash.
4. Are the monkeys aggressive? How so?
A: They show their teeth and pretend to be aggressive, but they aren’t really aggressive. The monkeys pretend just to scare people to make them drop whatever they’re holding, especially if they’re holding a plastic bag. They might go up and try to snatch the plastic bag but if you don’t appear frightened and scare them back, they’ll just go away. (Demonstrates “aggressive motion” towards monkeys. If you show fear then they’ll go up to you and try to snatch your stuff. But I’ve never seen them really attacking anyone. Though I have seen some visitors’ stuff being snatched away by the monkeys.
5. What do you do when you see the monkeys?
A: They don’t usually enter our house when we’re at home, and we just ignore them if they’re outside around the bins. Only if they try to scare me I would (demonstrates “scary action” towards monkeys) and try to frighten them away.
6. What sort of interactions do you observe between visitors and monkeys?
A: I’ve seen a lot of people feeding the monkeys, and then I’ll tell them off and scold them for doing it. They’re not the ones living here, they don’t know the consequences of what they’re doing.
7. What do you think has caused this extensive infestation of the monkeys?
A: I wouldn’t consider it an “infestation”, since they were here first. But when people have food, they encourage the monkeys by feeding them, they lose their fear of humans, and start to wander out of their homes.
Chinese Middle-aged woman (not allowed to record)
1. Are there so many macaques even on weekdays?
A: Yes everyday same.
2. Do the monkeys often enter your home?
A: Ya, everyday.
3. What problems do you face regarding the monkeys?
A: They steal food, mess up my things. They also destroy things like bowls and cups. Sometimes when we forget to close the windows or something, we come back to find our glassware and porcelain smashed. Once, we discovered our sofa had a very big scratch!
4. Are the monkeys aggressive? How so?
A: They are sometimes aggressive amongst each other, playing and fighting, and they make a lot of loud screechy noises. But other than messing up our homes, they are very rarely aggressive to us. I've seen them TRY to be aggressive la, but only to scare people into giving them food. But never really violent like attacking or scratching people.
5. What do you do when you see the monkeys?
A: I'm used to them, so I will just ignore. But if they try to snatch our food then we will shoo them away. Sometimes we use umbrellas to scare them off also.
6. What sort of interactions do you observe between visitors and monkeys?
A: They try to take pictures VERY close to the monkeys and sometimes also give them plastic bags filled with food. Little kids also make loud noises and faces to intimidate the monkeys and attract their attention. They like to stomp their feet and scream and run around the monkeys.
7. What do you think has caused this change in behaviour of the monkeys?
A: I think they are so used to being fed and finding food in our residences that they don't even bother to look for food in the forests. They think that we are their source of food, so their methods of finding food has evolved from looking for food in the forests to bins and scaring people. So, they are no longer afraid of us as they have to come into close contact with us.
Tiff and Ying (WELL)
At around 4.40pm, no monkeys could be observed as the sky was overcast and it was drizzling.
However, upon questioning, two women sitting inside the WELL laboratory said that they had observed a lot of monkeys everywhere just a while ago. When asked what their reaction to the monkeys was, they commented that they were unafraid of the monkeys as the monkeys did not harm anyone.
Two other couples said that they did not observe any monkeys, though. They probably arrived later than the two women, when it started raining.
We also questioned one of the workers at the WELL site. His job was to sweep the leaves on the floor. As he works there from morning to evening, he said that the monkeys were everywhere, and usually came out from the trees in the morning. However, when asked how he felt about the monkeys, he seemed unable to understand the question and so did not respond.
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