SANGEH, Indonesia (AP) – Deprived of their favorite food source: bananas, peanuts and other sweets brought by tourists who now keep away from the coronavirus, the hungry monkeys of the tourist island of Bali have taken to assault villagers looking for something tasty.
Sangeh villagers say long-tailed, gray-tailed macaques have ventured out of a shrine about 500 meters away to spend time on their rooftops and wait for the right time to fall and grab a snack.
Worried that the sporadic outings would turn into a total monkey attack in the village, residents have been bringing fruit, peanuts and other food into the Sangeh Monkey forest to try to appease the primates.
“We are afraid that hungry monkeys will become wild and cruel,” Saskara villager Gustu Alit said.
About 600 of the macaques live in the forest sanctuary, swinging from tall nutmeg trees and jumping through the famous Pura Bukit Sari temple, and are considered sacred.
In normal times, the protected area of the jungle in the southeast of the Indonesian island is popular among local residents for wedding photos, as well as among international visitors. Relatively tame monkeys can be easily persuaded to sit on one shoulder or lap for one or two peanuts.
Tourism is typically the main source of income for Bali’s 4 million residents, who annually welcomed more than 5 million foreign visitors before the pandemic.
The Sangeh Monkey forest used to have about 6,000 visitors a month, but as the pandemic spread last year and international travel dropped dramatically, that number dropped to about 500.
Since July, when Indonesia banned all foreign travelers to the island and closed the sanctuary to local residents as well, there has been no one.
Not only has this meant that no one has provided additional food for the monkeys, but the sanctuary has also lost its admission costs and run out of money to buy them food, said Made Mohon, operations manager.
Donations from villagers have helped, but they are also feeling the economic skin and giving less and less, he said.
“This prolonged pandemic exceeds our expectations,” Made Mohon said, “food for monkeys has become a problem.”
Food costs are about 850,000 rupees ($ 60) a day, Made Mohon said, for 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of cassava, monkey staple food and 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of bananas.
The macaque is omnivorous and can eat a wide variety of animals and plants found in the jungle, but those in the Sangeh Monkey forest have had enough contact with humans over the years that seem to prefer other things.
And they’re not afraid to take matters into their own hands, Gustu Alit said.
Frequently, the monkeys walk through the village and sit on the roofs, occasionally removing tiles and dropping them on the ground. When the villagers offer daily religious offerings of food on their terrace, the monkeys jump and march with them.
“A few days ago I attended a traditional ceremony at a temple near the Sangeh forest,” Gustu Alit said. “When I parked my car and pulled out two plastic bags containing food and flowers as an offering, two monkeys suddenly appeared who grabbed it all and quickly ran into the woods.”
Monkeys usually spend all day interacting with visitors (stealing sunglasses and water bottles, pulling clothes, jumping on their shoulders) and Gustu Alit theorizes that, rather than being hungry, they get bored.
“That’s why I urged the villagers here to come to the forest to play with the monkeys and offer them food,” he said. “I think they need to interact with humans as often as possible so they don’t go wild.”
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Karmini reported from Jakarta. Associated Press writer David Rising in Bangkok contributed to this report.