T2W9

WELL

Tiff and Ying

4.25pm - 5.25pm

Location - WELL:

No monkeys were observed. They were not near the exhibition center, and were also not at the edge of the forest in the trees where they were found the previous week.

5.30pm

Location - At the entrance to the forest trail, near the toilets and the carpark. There are trees and a drain/canal where water is flowing on the ground below the trees.

Macaque observations:

- About 12 or more macaques

- 3-4 baby/small macaques climbing while the rest were larger in size (adults)

- Macaques were very active and were constantly moving, never remaining at a particular spot for very long

- When macaques moved about, the trees would shake and the leaves would rustle (they made alot of noise)

- Jumped from one tree/branch to another

- One macaque jumped from the wooden railing it was perched on (that separates the forest from the trail) onto a tree leaf

- One large macaque jumped down from the tree it had been sitting on and ran very quickly across the trail to the other side, and climbed onto another tree

- Plucking leaves

- Feeding on leaves

- Scratching

- Made chirping noises

- Other macaques responded to these chirping noises

- One macaque sitting on the tree right next to the toilet stared at the humans for a while before disappearing into the trees

Human observations:

- One little boy commented in chinese that the macaques there were very naughty (considers monkey as naughty --> monkeys were not doing anything agressive/disturbing --> different perception from others??)

- A few people were taking photographs of the macaques

- One person walking with her dog on her leash stopped to look at the macaques. The dog seemed very interested in the macaques and kept pulling on its leash to try and move towards the macaques)

5.50pm

Location (same as previous) - At the entrance to the forest trail, near the toilets and the carpark. There are trees and a drain/canal where water is flowing on the ground below the trees.

Very few monkeys that could be visibly observed in the trees, only about 3-4 remaining.

Nat and Nicole (Bukit Timah)

Camera ran out of batt so didn't take any pictures or videos):

5pm:

- big bin still gone!

- 12 macaques observed (around row of houses, along the drain areas and road)

- around 27 people seen

5.20pm:

- 24 macaques seen

- around 30-35 people present

5.40pm:

- 35 macaques seen

- around 40 people seen

6pm:

- 26 macaques seen

- around 40 people

Macaque behavior:

- climbing and jumping on vehicles

- walking in the middle of roads, ignore all passing vehicles, take their time

- come very close to people (<1m)

- walk through residences

- climb on roofs

- rummaged through bins (along the row of houses)

- opened close dustbins

- 1 macaque snatched a plastic bag from an ang moh woman and climbed up a tree with it!

- eating and drinking from cans and plastic bags and brown paper wrapping

Human behavior:

- Man rang bicycle bell to scare off a group of monkeys by the road

- 4 small children running around very near the monkeys

- Parents at the side were not concerned.

- Man took pictures of the monkeys within a close distance (1m-2m)