World | Philippines
Hungry macaques swoop down on remote village
A group of monkeys swooped down on a remote central Philippine village recently plundering whatever food they could take before returning into the wilderness.
- By Gilbert Felongco, Correspondent
- Published: 00:14 April 13, 2008
Manila: A group of monkeys swooped down on a remote central Philippine village recently plundering whatever food they could take before returning into the wilderness.
The incident at Camula-yan Gamay in Negros Occidental last Sunday marks the first time in the area that the long tailed Philippine monkeys (Macaca Philippinensis) came out in large numbers and pillaged the locality with such audacity.
Radio station dyEZ reported that the macaques searched homes and granaries for whatever they could eat like bananas, roots, pineapples and jackfruit.
The report quoted Maya Bacones, a resident, as saying that it had not been unusual for one or a couple of monkeys to steal food from homes in the past. But, last week's attack "involved possibly an entire clan of hungry macaques".
Philippine monkeys typically avoid human contact. However, David Castro of the Negros Forest and Ecological Foundation, said hunger and easy availability of food from humans possibly prompted the macaques to carry out the foraging attack.
Castro said the growing human encroachment of the monkey's habitat is also to blame for the incident.
"It could be possible that the trees where the monkeys used to get their food are being cut down by illegal loggers," he said.
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