KUALA LUMPUR – A resident of Kota Damansara’s D’Rimba Apartment has not had a good night’s sleep in weeks due to the screeching of monkeys caught in a trap installed by the building management last month.
“I would cry hearing the monkeys yelling and trying to escape at night. During the day, I would see them struggling to endure the heat. I have lost my appetite to eat,” the 46-year-old single mother of two, who wanted to be identified only as Cik Kiah, told The Vibes.
“But, the residents here just want to get rid of the monkeys. They consider the primates a menace. Just how heartless can they be?”
The apartment is located on the fringes of a 323.7ha forest reserve that macaques and other wildlife call home.
Cik Kiah sometimes feeds hungry monkeys that stray into the apartment compound, but her act of kindness has irked many residents, who describe the animals as a nuisance.
“They claim that because of me, many of the residents are suffering, with their plants and properties purportedly damaged (by the monkeys). But these animals are harmless, they have never hurt anyone.
Some people have called me out in the residents’ WhatsApp group and shared photos of me feeding the monkeys. I have been called a ‘criminal’ for encouraging the monkeys to return. Firecrackers were aimed at my unit once.”
On the morning of March 14, while she was at a neighbour’s unit to discuss what could be done to save the macaques, Cik Kiah heard gunshots.
She rushed out only to see the trap empty and a vehicle bearing the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) logo leaving the area.
Despite not witnessing what happened, she suspected that monkeys were shot.
Some days later, she detected a foul odour – similar to that of a carcass – coming from the forest area near where the trap was set up.
The border wall surrounding the apartment compound prevented Cik Kiah from verifying whether monkeys had indeed been shot dead and their bodies disposed of in the forest.
But, she is convinced this was what transpired.
“A neighbour once saw (Perhilitan) officers putting several monkeys in sacks. Obviously, the monkeys were dead.
“They (Perhilitan) should be protecting wild animals, but they appear to be conspiring with bad-hearted residents instead. What they are doing is inhumane.”
She recalled another incident early this year, where a neighbour witnessed a Perhilitan officer opening fire at macaques in the forest.
Furry friends
These incidents have devastated Cik Kiah, who has built a strong bond with many of the monkeys in the area since she moved in about nine years ago.
She has even named some of them, including Kiki, Abang Tam and Si Lebar.
“I usually allow them into my kitchen for food, and they’ll stay around for a bit. I don’t see a problem with this. But now, they have stopped coming, and I fear the worst.
The issue is not the monkeys. We humans are the ones who built houses on their land, and yet, we are filled with so much hatred. It’s perplexing that many people want to live by the forest, but don’t want to live together with the animals.”
Cik Kiah previously suggested that the apartment management allocate a special space where the monkeys could be fed, so as to keep them away from residents’ units, but it went unheeded.
She also filed a complaint with Perhilitan a few weeks ago on the trap installed in the area, as well as the alleged shooting incident, but has not received a response.
Another resident, who declined to be named, said she, too, heard shots fired last month.
She said she once threw a rope into the trap so that the monkeys inside could climb out, but the animals appeared too frightened to do so.
Selangor Perhilitan director Haidar Khan Mokbolhassan denied that his personnel have shot macaques in the trap, but said they are authorised to kill “alpha-sized” monkeys to prevent the risk of these animals harming people, especially children.
On the situation at D’Rimba Apartment, he said: “We respond to complaints by the public, and in cases where the ape population is huge and action is required, traps will be used. Culling is also one way of doing it (handling the situation).
"For the record, our officers have the power to trap, catch or kill monkeys under the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010.”
He said culling monkeys, either by shooting or euthanising them, is a method used by the department to reduce human-primate conflicts.
The carcasses are placed in sacks or plastic bags before they are buried.
With the number of complaints on monkeys increasing each year, said Haidar, Perhilitan has started cooperation with residents’ associations so that communities can build their own traps.
The animals caught in these traps are taken away by department personnel. – The Vibes, April 24, 2021
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