Malaysia: Macaque abducts, bites and drops baby from roof

Chitra S. Nathan and Lester Kong The Star 7 Oct 10;

SEREMBAN: In mere minutes, a young woman turned from a happy mother to a grieving one when she lost her four-day-old baby to a wild monkey that was shot dead several hours later.

In the 1.15pm tragedy yesterday, the macaque stole into the living room; snatched the child and fled up the roof of the house. The baby fell to the ground and died.

The mother, V. Revathy, 26, had left her first-born child in the living room of the single-storey house near Taman Happy Garden to use the toilet. The baby’s body was discovered later outside the house with her face and neck badly bitten. She was rushed to the Tuanku Ja’afar Hospital here where she was pronounced dead.

Revathi’s father-in-law A. Valayutham, 70, was in the living room with the newborn but had gone to get a glass of water when the tragedy occurred.

“We frantically searched all over the house and saw her body covered in blood lying outside the house,” he said.

Valayutham added that he had noticed a few monkeys outside the house compound at that time.

The area where the family stayed was sandwiched between two residential areas with a foliage of trees nearby where there were monkeys.

Negri Sembilan Wildlife and National Parks director Ishak Muhamad said the macaque was shot dead at 4pm.

“We suspect the macaque was rummaging for food inside the house. It could have taken the baby to the roof thinking the newborn was food.

“The baby died when it fell to the ground. The monkey had apparently released the newborn, probably because it was alarmed by the parents’ shouts,” Ishak said yesterday.

He added that the parents had called the Fire and Rescue Department at 2.15pm, which immediately contacted the Wildlife and National Parks Department.

“We reached the house at about 3pm and set off with the baby’s father to look for the macaque,” he said.

Ishak said department officers saw the macaque in some bushes several metres from the house at about 4pm.

The macaque was shot when it began to act aggressively.

Ishak added that it was the first such case in the state, and believed the male monkey was attracted by a female kept in captivity as a pet by the family.

“This is very unusual. Normally, these monkeys simply steal food or pluck fruit from the yard,” he said.

The baby’s father, lorry driver V. Neru, 29, who was not at home when the incident occurred, said he could not believe that such a thing could have happened.

“I rushed to the hospital only to be told that she was gone.

“She was our bundle of joy and we were looking forward to spending many happy years with her ... I just cannot believe she’s gone,” he said.

R. Shanty, 35, who lives nearby said it was common to see monkeys in groups of three or four in the area.

“A while back, my pet dog was attacked by these monkeys. Its badly-bitten body was thrown from a tree.

“I really hope the authorities take action and not wait until another life is lost,” she said.

Rahang assemblyman M.K. Arumugam, who visited the family yesterday evening, expressed regret over the incident.

“I have brought this matter up before but sadly no action was taken. I am very disappointed that something like this had to happen before the authorities took notice,” he said.

Macaques can be an aggressive breed, says expert
Loh Foon Fong The Star 7 Oct 10;

PETALING JAYA: If a monkey killed the infant in Seremban, the perpetrator was likely to be either the long-tailed macaque (macaca fascicularis) or pig-tailed macaque (macaca nemestrina), said an expert.

Associate professor Dr S. Vellayan, one of the country’s pioneers in primatology and based in Universiti Teknologi Mara, said the two species were aggressive and had bitten human beings.

“We can determine whether the baby was bitten by a monkey by looking at the bites and scratches,” he said in an interview, adding that it was usually the males which tended to be aggressive.

“If the monkey had carried away and killed the baby, it could have entered the house following development encroachment into its habitat,” he said.

He advised the public to not make direct eye contact with monkeys which might feel threatened and become aggressive.

“To ward off the monkeys, people could keep dogs, use small fire crackers or laser pointers to cause fright,” he said.

Malaysian Nature Society head of environment education division Shan Mugaraj said long-tailed macaques were persistent and could turn aggressive when they did not get what they wanted, such as food.

Baby dies after monkey attack
Heidi Foo The New Straits Times 7 Oct 10;

SEREMBAN: First-time parents V. Nehru and V. Revathy were proud when they were blessed with a baby girl four days ago.

Their joy, however, was short-lived when their child died after she was believed to have been bitten by a wild monkey yesterday.

Nehru, 29, a lorry driver, said he was at work when the incident happened at their home in Taman Happy here.

He rushed to Tuanku Jaafar Hospital here after Revathy, 26, informed him of the attack.

"I was shocked that my baby girl was attacked by a monkey. My wife gave birth to her on Sunday and we never expected this to happen.

"We had just thought of a name for her. We had planned to register her as Devagi."

Nehru said on that day, his father was babysitting the child in the living room and had gone to the kitchen to get a drink. His mother was cooking in the kitchen while his wife was in the bathroom.

"When my wife came out from the bathroom, she didn't see our baby and began searching for her in the house.

"She later found our baby on the ground near the back door. Our daughter had bite marks on her ears, neck and head."

He said his family had a pet female monkey and that another monkey, believed to be a male long-tailed macaque, was attracted to it.

"Our pet monkey has never harassed anyone or caused any disturbance in the neighbourhood. Two months ago, we noticed that a male monkey was loitering near an abandoned house near our home.

"We believe that monkey could have entered our home and taken our baby."

Meanwhile, state Wildlife and National Parks director Ishak Mohamad said the wild monkey could have been attracted to the female pet monkey kept in a cage.

He said enforcement personnel had shot one of two wild monkeys which were loitering near the abandoned house.

"The wild monkeys are around because people have been giving them food. Stop feeding them, they are wild animals and dangerous."

Rahang assemblyman M.K. Arumugam said wild monkeys were a familiar sight in the area as passers-by frequently fed them.

He said the unkempt surroundings of the abandoned house had made it a suitable place for the wild monkeys.

"I have written to the Seremban Municipal Council to locate the owner and clear the area.

"The owner should be fined for not keeping the surroundings clean."

Killer macaque still alive
Sarban Singh and Chitra S. Nathan The Star 8 Oct 10;

SEREMBAN: Residents of Taman Happy Garden and Taman Mok Sum are claiming that the authorities had shot the wrong macaque and the one responsible for killing a four-day-old baby is still lurking in the nearby jungle.

They said the dominant alpha male monkey was too intelligent to become an easy target for Wildlife and National Parks Department officers.

Retired government servant Mohinder Singh, 74, said the alpha male could grow up to 0.7m.

“The monkey killed by the officers yesterday was much smaller. Alpha males are bigger and stronger and they have even attacked and killed mongrels,” he said, adding that last year, a group of monkeys almost attacked a five-year-old girl who ventured out of her house to play.

Another resident, P. Vellai, 56, said the dominant monkey was not afraid of women.

“The alpha male is huge. The one shot by the officers does not fit the description,” she said, adding that the alpha male was always surrounded by other monkeys while the one shot was all alone.

Earlier in the afternoon, the baby was cremated at the Jalan Tun Dr Ismail crematorium and the ashes were strewn in waters off Port Dickson.

“We were planning a grand Deepavali but that will not happen now. My heart bled when I saw my little baby with stitches on her head and face,” said a sobbing V. Revathy, 26, the baby’s mother.

Lorry attendant V. Nehru, 30, said they had planned to register their daughter’s birth on Sunday but now she had died without a name.

He also said that it was possible that the killer monkey was attracted to their female pet monkey as male monkeys used to hang around her cage.

Later, state MCA chairman Datuk Dr Yeow Chai Thiam and state MIC secretary S. Bathumalai visited the family and presented them with some financial aid.

Baby could have been mistaken for pet’s offspring
The Star 8 Oct 10;

SEREMBAN: The macaque that abducted and bit a four-day-old baby here may have mistaken the newborn as the offspring of the family’s pet female monkey.

State Wildlife and National Parks officer Zafifi Ramli said the monkey could have been provoked to attack the baby when it felt its position as the alpha male in the area threatened.

“The male may have been attracted to the female macaque kept by the family. It is possible that the monkey attacked the baby after it mistook the newborn for the female’s offspring when it felt its position as the alpha male was at stake,” he said.

The last such incident, he said, was in 2008 when a kindergarten pupil survived an attack by a monkey in Taman Tuanku Ja’afar.

He said the department had received a complaint a year ago from Taman Happy Garden residents and had acted on it by trapping the monkeys that were being a menace.

“We usually set traps and take the offending monkeys away but if the monkeys are aggressive and are a threat to security, we sometimes have no choice but to shoot them,” he said, adding that complaints had also been received from residents in Taman SEA, Taman Desa Ros and Taman Guru previously.

“Based on our investigations, we believe the monkey that was shot by our officers was the one responsible for the attack as it had traces of blood on its mouth,” he said.

However, he could not confirm if the blood belonged to the infant or was from the injuries sustained by the monkey after it fell from the tree.

Earlier, Wildlife and National Parks Department director Ishak Muhamad said the family did not commit an offence by keeping the monkey as a pet.

Seremban Municipal Council president Datuk Abdul Halim Abdul Latif said such complaints were normally referred to the Wildlife Department as the council was not equipped to handle such cases.