Monkey Mania

Living beside a heavily forested nature reserve has its scores of benefits. Fresh air, cool mist, a pleasant green landscape to admire, sweet sounds of birds calling in the morning, as well as animal visitors popping by rather often. Speaking of these animal visitors, some of them such as cute little birds that perch on my railings are a welcome sight. Others are not so welcome, such as the hordes of monkeys invading the urban space.

Coming from the forests, whole families of monkeys, with babies clinging underside, make routine journeys along the road leading to the condos, causing a great mess in their wake. During the recently-over hungry ghost festival, food offerings meant for the ghosts were instead a great source of attraction for the monkeys that gobbled them up in a feeding frenzy. it was almost sick to watch.

Now that there are no more offerings, the monkeys still continue to come; finding no more cakes and oranges, they turn their appetite to leaves and flowers of the estate's plants instead. Plants that once beautified the estate are now stripped bare, their leaves and branches in pieces littering the pavements. Apparently, leaves and branches are hardly adequate to satisfy them. They are still really hungry and crazy for food. They rummage through the trash bins, digging up any plastic bag or boxes before throwing them all over the place. the aftermath is extremely unsightly and unsanitary.

These monkeys have grown to become almost unafraid of humans, although they know their limits and wont attack us or stand in our path. But have some food leave your hands in their sight, and be sure it will be gone in seconds. The above picture was intended to be of a family of monkeys sitting on the railings and looking at me. it was like a family portrait! I whipped out my iphone to take a snap, but i first had to put down a cup of bubble tea i was holding. Before i could take a picture, the whole family came rushing towards me, grabbed the bubble tea, and fled beyond the railings to slowly tear it apart.What i got instead was a photo of frenzied monkeys coming at me!

the estate management reacted by ordering monkey traps. A few residents raised a petition against it, sending letters to everyone. But i aint signing it! These monkeys deserve good riddance for their pestilence.