[Raptor235]

It’s easy to feel sorry for sad monkey faces in photographs. But what about when those monkeys are rampaging through your home? That’s the dilemma in the Malang area of East Java, Indonesia.

Several months ago, macaque monkeys started foraging in villages near Wendit park. Part of the small park, with its population of macaques, was recently developed for homes and businesses. The loss of natural habitat has forced the monkeys into surrounding communities, looking for food.

The long-tailed macaque (also known as the crab-eating macaque) is native in southeast Asia. As a species, these monkeys are able to adapt to various habitats, but prefer areas around freshwater sources. Regions that have been cleared for agriculture and development are still viable homes for macaques. In fact, they will feed on agricultural crops, as well as scavenging for garbage around inhabited areas.You can find the entire article here http://aboutmyplanet.com/environment/monkey-business

[Simon47]

This is a challenging issue and the consequences of poor or no management lead to similar situations around the globe. In North America we have learned that when humans occupy the areas and eliminate habitat for that purpose there becomes the issue of the forest seeking to reclaim it's territory. When the habitat is removed then the creatures that once thrived in the wild are now faced with a new wilderness; the urban environment.

One of the key principles of sustainable management suggests that we reduce or eliminate further incursion into habitat. There are efforts to reduce or eliminate the the clear cutting of forests and the establishment of "n developmet" zones or buffers of natural surroundings within and between developing areas.

In Ontario; we face the issue of wildlife causing challenges to municipal life whether it is deer or moose on city streets, raccoons, skunks and bears invading the garbage left on the roadside overnight or coyotes and bobcats eating our beloved pets or farm animals because they are convenient and plentiful. It is the custom of humans to declare the creatures to be PESTS. It is more of a perspective than it is a fact.

I personally have become quite comfortable living in the north and quite expect to step out my door and see a bear sunning itself on my driveway or catch raccoons eating out of the same bowls that my outdoor cats use. I have to accept that the loss of one of my cats this year was due to predation. Similarly I had to accept that the time a bear attacked and savaged my dog(which survived) did so out of self preservation rather than hostility. My work is done deep in the woods and perhaps I too will become a victim of predation or a chance encounter with a bear that attacks me simply because she perceived a threat to her cubs or his territory. This is the same reason that humans engage in culling and radical extermination campaigns. Wild and domestic animals apply different rules.

Humans are no different than I suppose it is with any species that we are self centric and the matter of survival depends on meeting our own needs first above all other consideration. Times are changing and humans are coming to a realization that we can no longer isolate ourselves above or beyond the nature we exploit to live. Our actions have consequences and while we may act in our best interest they can and will be, at times, self defeating. Our thoughtless destruction of natural spaces, forests and wetlands that once served as habitat for wildlife is also contributing to our decline. These things also serve other functions in the processes of the Earth Organism. The elimination of species at the rate of 100 or 100,000 or 1 a day has and will continue to have a lasting and devastating effect since the eradication of a single species of animal will have a consequence to flora, fauna and microscopic biota and insects because simply; it is all connected in the great web of life. Where do we expect these creatures will go when the land your house is on in the only home they have ever known and their family has known for thousands and in some case, millions of years.

I recognize that it is more difficult for city dwwellers to grasp these things. It is not to say that they are ignorant or uncaring but many and growing numbers have no experience with nature beyond a local park or greenbelt. How many people never saw a cow or made the connection between it and the hamburger milk and cheese from the local Market outlet. How many don't recognize the intracacies of natural connections and the effect of beef farming and soy production on the environment simply because they have never seen the stars or blue sky over green field or observed the city's brown sky from the green fields beyond the safety of the village.

Sim

[mollyL]

I have seen video of these very monkeys grabbing food and running about doing all kinds of "mischief". I had not had the information that they are in their old habitat that was torn down to make houses. That puts a different perspective on the story . I am very sorry for the people's troubles, but this is exactly what happens when humans encroach on animal's habitats. Where I live, there are similar problems with bears and raccoons. Driving down a road I saw that more of the forest has been torn down, most likely to build houses that people won't be able to afford anyway. If someone does buy a house there I'm sure the Realtor will "forget" to tell the new homeowner that, by the way, they'll probably see bears in their yard.

[atula]

In the are where I live...there are many snakes that come out and people eventually kill them as they are scared of these creatures...but the problem is similar...it is actually us who are encroaching their living space and when they come out we think they are trouble...when it is actually the other way round....

[tater03]

We have that same problem here in the Northeast but with the deer. The deer are now in coming into the more populated areas because their habitat is all but gone now.

[RFL1986]

We also have that problem with deer as well; not so much now that I've moved to Toronto (now it's raccoons without any forest so they forage through residential garbages) but it's a big problem considering that people start considering these animals pests when they're just trying to survive.

[mollyL]

My Mom is in her eighties now, and mostly has all her buttons. She told me very confidentially that "The deer watch and know when we're gone so they can come eat all my daffodil bulbs". I took that as a little bit of oldster talk, but maybe I judged her too quickly. Any truth in what my mom said, people with deer problems?

[RFL1986]

We never had specific problems with them in that kind of way but people who lived closer to the patch of forest often thought that the deer waited for nighttime so they could come and make a mess of their gardens.

[mollyL]

A friend of ours who works at our local hospital was telling us last night that bears keep showing up on the hospital campus and everyone is in a tizzy about it. He said that there is roadwork being done near the hospital and that the bears' den must be quite close to a culvert they are modifying. Hopefully when the road work is done the bears can go back home.

[Serenity]

Originally Posted by mollyL

My Mom is in her eighties now, and mostly has all her buttons. She told me very confidentially that "The deer watch and know when we're gone so they can come eat all my daffodil bulbs". I took that as a little bit of oldster talk, but maybe I judged her too quickly. Any truth in what my mom said, people with deer problems?

Molly, I stood the other night at about 2 am when I took the dog out and watched three deer right across the road from me using a feeder my neighbor set out in his back yard. They just moved in and the previous owner had kept it filled for years as his yard backs onto a huge forest and mountains. They promised to do the same and true to their word, they have. The deer didn't see me in amongst our trees and thankfully the dog didn't notice them but it was such a serene. magical moment, I almost cried. I stood for about ten minutes watching them.

I think mom may very well be right.

Sim, thanks for such an eloquent post. It was a pleasure to read. I have raccoons shredding my garbage and possums too. I'm yet to see a bear emerge from the forest but have been told to be careful in the dark since we're so close to it. The deer can eat my flowers if they want, because the way I see it, we take far more from them than they ever shall from us. The pests are us, not the animals. They just do what they need to do to survive.