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These monkeys are not fatally dangerous if that's what GP is saying. But they cause heavy and serious nuisance. Where I live, these monkeys invade gradens, ag

by rg111 5y ago

These monkeys are not fatally dangerous if that's what GP is saying. But they cause heavy and serious nuisance. Where I live, these monkeys invade gradens, agricultural fields, house rooftops at least 4-5 times a month. The locals drop anything they do, and chase away these monkeys. When chased by an adult male human, these monkeys don't fight back and are easily frightened. They don't mess with adult males or groups of humans. A kid or a lone woman is not safe, though. When faced by them, monkeys gesture retaliation, and that is enough frightening. An adult male cannot physically take on a monkey. It is impossible. Still they don't attack. They steal bananas, mangos, guavas- all kinds of fruits, any food item not indoors, and destroy flowers and plants. Thus, for families depending on these as their source of income have to always remain vigilant to monkey invasions. Common methods include- stone being thrown directly at them intending full harm, pebbles thrown by slingshots, and firecrackers. Banging metal objects loudly also seems to help. We have mango groves that we lend on a yearly basis. The people who lease them from us establish outposts during the mango season which are always manned by at least one man with ready reinforcement in case of monkey invasion. For those families not depending financially on tree products are also harmed. They make growing flowering plants difficult. They steal food from outdoors, and not to mention the awfully smelling solid and liquid excretion they leave on your rooftops. (All rooftops are flat in the plains region, and they are important in our lives.) By the way, I lost one pomelo (Citrus maxima) to a bunch of monkeys this very afternoon.

cute_boi 5y ago
I understand but aren't we to be blame for this? We took their home, we took their shelter and what can they do? And they don't have enough wisdom to know who they should harm and who they shouldn't. And many of monkey i know here are too friendly but yea after they starts to live with humans they learn to hoodwink people because many thieves are known to use monkey to snatch valuables from tourist by providing bananas as incentives to them.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 5y ago
  > We took their home We are an animal and part of nature too. > And they don't have enough wisdom to know who they should harm and who they shouldn't. They seem pretty smart about it tbh. They know what they can get away with and go no further than that.
- perl4ever 5y ago
  There have been articles, probably also threads on HN, about monkeys enslaved and used to harvest crops or something. I don't remember all the details, but they pull out their teeth so they can't bite, and coerce them into working much faster than humans could.
  - xaedes 5y ago
    Sounds pretty gruesome. However, the concept of it seems to be ancient. The great Indian epic of Ramayana has a part that tells how they build Adam's / Rama's bridge to Sri Lanka with the "help" of monkeys: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Monkeys_and_Bears_Build_a_Bridge_to_Lanka.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Monkeys_and_Bears_Bui...
throwaway2331 5y ago
> An adult male cannot physically take on a monkey. It is impossible. Still they don't attack. Are you positive? A chimpanzee: yes. A guerilla: indubitable. But a monkey? They seem like medium-sized dogs, that can move around quicker and more freely. They'll bite out your flesh, and perhaps maim you to a semi-serious degree (including infection), but I cannot fathom a monkey seriously killing a grown adult male human being. These are 20-40lb, very aggressive racoons. If you shock them with anything, they're most likely going to flee for fear of serious injury.
- fellellor 5y ago
  As an adult male, I’d rather not get my flesh bitten off or maimed. So I cannot engage in a fight with any monkey. The only fight that I would rather fight is one in which I have overwhelming odds of winning.
- vijaybritto 5y ago
  > But a monkey? Oh boy never test this out. They will attack violently and will not spare you. If they have enough numbers or have the pack leader(usually the one with the biggest balls) close by then they will retaliate. I'm from south India and I have seen a lot of grown up men get roughed up by monkeys
  - 2-718-281-828 5y ago
    "roughed up" sounds like getting a beating. but I'd assume they rip your face off and stuff. care to elaborate?
    - vijaybritto 5y ago
      Yes they will scratch/bite you a lot. But they'll leave you after a while. They're not extremely violent like predators eating us. They only retaliate
      - 2-718-281-828 5y ago
tgsovlerkhgsel 5y ago
> An adult male cannot physically take on a monkey. Really? I would expect that the inevitable injuries aren't worth it, but I'd expect this to be the case on both sides, with the monkey ending up significantly worse off if the human were to actually consider it a fight-to-kill-or-be-killed, not a "make the nuisance go away". What I don't understand though: If the monkeys are such a nuisance, why are they tolerated? Is there a religious taboo against hurting them? Legal protection? Strict limits on what kind of weapons people can have?
- fault1 5y ago
  yes, i'd say there is both societal taboo (especially outright culling them rather than just throwing stones at them to chase them away) and legal restrictions: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/23/world/asia/fed-by-indians-monkeys-overwhelm-delhi.html https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/23/world/asia/fed-by-indians... I would say that at least in north east india, monkeys didn't seem to be a huge problem. There are langurs everywhere, but they mostly stick to trees or the jungle, or sometimes the outskirts of towns. I think it's probably because they have plenty of places to eat there relative to the more urbanized parts of the country.
- rg111 5y ago
  Religious taboo is held by some of the Indians. Not all or even most of them. A religious granny wouldn't want to kill a monkey, but if her grandson is threatened? Hell yes. And, yes, they are protected by wildlife conservation laws.
RickJWagner 5y ago
If slingshots are used, would a pellet gun be effective? They are inexpensive and can be fairly powerful. (Some pellet guns propel metal projectiles at speeds around 1,000 fps, which can be fatal to a human if incredibly well placed.)
- rg111 5y ago
  Pellet guns would be illegal. These monkeys are protected by wildlife conservation act. Some weeks back, some guy poisoned a few pigeons that ate his crops that were being dried in the sun. Last I heard that the police lodged a criminal case against him. It was on the newspapers.

by rg111 5y ago

cute_boi 5y ago

I understand but aren't we to be blame for this? We took their home, we took their shelter and what can they do? And they don't have enough wisdom to know who they should harm and who they shouldn't. And many of monkey i know here are too friendly but yea after they starts to live with humans they learn to hoodwink people because many thieves are known to use monkey to snatch valuables from tourist by providing bananas as incentives to them.

tgsovlerkhgsel 5y ago
> We took their home We are an animal and part of nature too. > And they don't have enough wisdom to know who they should harm and who they shouldn't. They seem pretty smart about it tbh. They know what they can get away with and go no further than that.
perl4ever 5y ago
There have been articles, probably also threads on HN, about monkeys enslaved and used to harvest crops or something. I don't remember all the details, but they pull out their teeth so they can't bite, and coerce them into working much faster than humans could.
- xaedes 5y ago
  Sounds pretty gruesome. However, the concept of it seems to be ancient. The great Indian epic of Ramayana has a part that tells how they build Adam's / Rama's bridge to Sri Lanka with the "help" of monkeys: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Monkeys_and_Bears_Build_a_Bridge_to_Lanka.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Monkeys_and_Bears_Bui...

throwaway2331 5y ago

> An adult male cannot physically take on a monkey. It is impossible. Still they don't attack. Are you positive? A chimpanzee: yes. A guerilla: indubitable. But a monkey? They seem like medium-sized dogs, that can move around quicker and more freely. They'll bite out your flesh, and perhaps maim you to a semi-serious degree (including infection), but I cannot fathom a monkey seriously killing a grown adult male human being. These are 20-40lb, very aggressive racoons. If you shock them with anything, they're most likely going to flee for fear of serious injury.

fellellor 5y ago
As an adult male, I’d rather not get my flesh bitten off or maimed. So I cannot engage in a fight with any monkey. The only fight that I would rather fight is one in which I have overwhelming odds of winning.
vijaybritto 5y ago
> But a monkey? Oh boy never test this out. They will attack violently and will not spare you. If they have enough numbers or have the pack leader(usually the one with the biggest balls) close by then they will retaliate. I'm from south India and I have seen a lot of grown up men get roughed up by monkeys
- 2-718-281-828 5y ago
  "roughed up" sounds like getting a beating. but I'd assume they rip your face off and stuff. care to elaborate?
  - vijaybritto 5y ago
    Yes they will scratch/bite you a lot. But they'll leave you after a while. They're not extremely violent like predators eating us. They only retaliate
    - 2-718-281-828 5y ago

tgsovlerkhgsel 5y ago

> An adult male cannot physically take on a monkey. Really? I would expect that the inevitable injuries aren't worth it, but I'd expect this to be the case on both sides, with the monkey ending up significantly worse off if the human were to actually consider it a fight-to-kill-or-be-killed, not a "make the nuisance go away". What I don't understand though: If the monkeys are such a nuisance, why are they tolerated? Is there a religious taboo against hurting them? Legal protection? Strict limits on what kind of weapons people can have?

fault1 5y ago
yes, i'd say there is both societal taboo (especially outright culling them rather than just throwing stones at them to chase them away) and legal restrictions: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/23/world/asia/fed-by-indians-monkeys-overwhelm-delhi.html https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/23/world/asia/fed-by-indians... I would say that at least in north east india, monkeys didn't seem to be a huge problem. There are langurs everywhere, but they mostly stick to trees or the jungle, or sometimes the outskirts of towns. I think it's probably because they have plenty of places to eat there relative to the more urbanized parts of the country.
rg111 5y ago
Religious taboo is held by some of the Indians. Not all or even most of them. A religious granny wouldn't want to kill a monkey, but if her grandson is threatened? Hell yes. And, yes, they are protected by wildlife conservation laws.

RickJWagner 5y ago

If slingshots are used, would a pellet gun be effective? They are inexpensive and can be fairly powerful. (Some pellet guns propel metal projectiles at speeds around 1,000 fps, which can be fatal to a human if incredibly well placed.)

rg111 5y ago
Pellet guns would be illegal. These monkeys are protected by wildlife conservation act. Some weeks back, some guy poisoned a few pigeons that ate his crops that were being dried in the sun. Last I heard that the police lodged a criminal case against him. It was on the newspapers.