Had some extra fruit so why not feed the monkeys?

At one of our major temple projects there just happens to be a tremendous amount of monkeys there as well. The cats, dogs, and various kinds of monkeys all live in the same complex in relative harmony and it is extremely rare for there to be any sort of confrontation between the species as they all kind of just leave one another alone. The monkeys are normally the last ones in line to get any sort of food handouts but in my journey I ran across someone that is familiar with what we do and they gave me a bunch of papaya and other fruits as a show of appreciation. I have no practical reason to have many kilos of papaya at my house so I figured I would dice it up for our tree friends at the Tiger Cave Temple.

I have to say that I was kind of surprised about how calm the monkeys were during this particular handout because in the past they would always swarm in a way that actually kind of made me afraid to interact with them. I think people who don't interact with monkeys seem to have the wrong idea about them. They can be very dangerous and they aren't known for their patience when it comes to being given food. There are a lot of stories of people being bitten by monkeys who quickly become excited about receiving food from a human and the human learns really quickly that these monkeys are not to be trifled with when it comes to food.

Personally I have never been harmed or ever felt like I was potentially going to be harmed at the hands of these little guys. I'd like to believe that I could quite easily clean their clocks if it came down to it but I also have a sort of respect for how completely undomesticated they are.

I have learned through years of exposure that the best thing to do is to place the food on the ground and then back up. If you want to take a photo that is fine, but you better do it from a distance. Even getting as close as I am there could cause alarm on the part of the monkey and that isn't a nice place to find yourself. They get angry pretty easily and in some instances have been known to swarm. Mostly they respect the power of a human and will prefer to keep their distance but these monkeys in particular are very accustomed to humans being around and there are a lot of biologists out there that would probably say that nature has been done a great disservice by ever feeding them in the first place. I can see where they would get that opinion because I don't think there would be as many monkeys as there are here had it not been for the fact that it turned into a tourist attraction.

I guess I am just too kind-hearted to simply allow a certain percentage of them to die out and I don't do this on a regular basis. The alternative was to have most of this fruit rot so I don't feel bad about having done it.

If you do ever find yourself face to face with a Thai monkey please don't be a fool. They look cute and have been featured as docile pets in movies but the reality is a very different situation. They will bite and scratch you if they get agitated, even if you come bearing fruit gifts.

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If you would like to see how you can help out or simply spread the word, please visit our website at

http://krabianimalwelfare.org

_{Krabi Animal Welfare is a charity run entirely by volunteers and are a registered non-profit organization in Thailand and the U.K.. We aim to relieve the pain and suffering of dogs and cats within Krabi Province.}

เป็นผู้สนับสนุนรายเดือนหรือบริจาคครั้งเดียวได้ที่:

http://krabianimalwelfare.org

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