The Impending Chimpocalypse

How to Prevent a Monkey Attack

How To: Jason Daley explains how to avoid getting bitten, slapped or shoved by an ornery primate.

The Situation: Among the many worries a traveler may be forced to contemplate—catastrophic bus fires, itchy money belts, hemorrhagic fevers—one menace is typically overlooked: monkeys. From troops of temple macaques, to city slicker baboons, to curious vervets, a trip to almost any destination between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn will put you in the domain of our simian cousins. For the most part, monkeys in the wild aren’t a problem. But acclimate them to a stream of snacking tourists, and the beasties can become aggressive if not downright dangerous. An encounter gone awry can lead to stitches, a potentially fatal case of herpes-B, or a cameo on YouTube and mortal embarrassment:

Rise of the Apes: Like so many ecological problems, human/monkey entanglements happen because civilization is encroaching more and more into a once wild habitat. The result is a clash between man and monkey over limited resources, sometimes with deadly results. In 2000, in Takaba, Kenya, drought-stricken villagers were forced to battle a group of clawing, stone-throwing monkeys for two hours while trying to reach three tanker trucks of water.

The most famous example of the out of control monkey situation happened in 2007, when the deputy mayor of New Delhi was pushed off the balcony of his home by a marauding troop of macaques. And that was just one sortie in the battle for India’s capital. Over the last few years, the macaques in New Delhi have inflicted over 2,000 bites, sacked people’s homes and businesses, and once even stole classified documents from the Indian defense department.

For the average traveler the risk of ape-related death or primate-fueled political upheaval is small. But worldwide, there’s plenty of monkey trouble to go around.

http://www.worldhum.com/features/how-to/how-to-prevent-a-monkey-attack-20081219/