Monkeys and Humans

One of the joys of the joys of walking at the Forest Walk in Telok Blangah is that at times you can see a band of macaque monkeys walking along the trail. I must have walk along that trail over 50 times and I’m always on the lookout for the monkeys.

To me, it’s a joy to see them. Unfortunately, that does not seem the case for some Singaporeans. National Parks Board (NParks) officers say that they are looking for a monkey who is attacking people along the park. To me, they should be looking out for the humans along the trail, not the monkeys.

I must have jogged past those monkeys 2 dozen times by now and not once did I ever have any problems with the monkeys. The problem lies not with the monkeys but with the idiot humans on the trail. Basically Singaporeans are city people and most of us are extremely uncomfortable with wild animals. I have seem people screaming their lungs the moment they see the monkeys. FOR NO APPARENT REASON!

The monkey will just be sitting there on the metal railings of the skywalk, the humans are the ones walking past and the moment the monkey look at them, they will start screaming. I even once saw a girl going close to take a photo of a monkey but the moment the monkey turned its head and looked at her, she backpedaled screaming. And she was the one who got close to the monkey!

To me, Nparks are looking at the wrong species. To me, the monkeys are okay because even if they follow you, after awhile they would tail off. The main problems on the trail are humans who visit a 9km chain of green open spaces and, for some reason, are afraid of seeing monkeys! To me, the problems between monkeys and humans on the trail are more due to humans than monkeys.