[imagesource: Fredi Devas/BBC]

Recently, folks in the Cape were up in arms when a baboon, Kataza, was forcibly removed from his troop, which was often seen in and around Kommetjie.

Petitions were started, groups were formed on social media, and even Jane Goodall got involved.

Kataza, or SK11 in official documents, has been on the radar of the city’s baboon monitors for a while, but the decision to relocate him to Tokai led to a hostile debate between animal rights activists and City of Cape Town officials and scientists.

Sadly, that saga has taken another turn, with Kataza pictured over the weekend with what appears to be a serious injury to his left shoulder. You can see more on that here.

As industry and urbanisation further encroach on nature, showdowns between humans and animals have become more frequent, but nothing beats what’s happening in India.

Here’s VICE:

“India has been facing a monkey menace since the late 80’s. Before that, humans and primates peacefully co-existed without such conflicts,” Dr Iqbal Malik, a primatologist, with 40 years of experience in studying monkey species in India, told VICE News.

Malik puts it down to a lack of population control of both monkeys and humans, the destruction of forest areas which would ordinarily be monkey habitats, and a shift to monoculture farming which has led to increased rivalry and aggression amongst monkeys.

Between 2002 and 2018, India lost 310 624 hectares of forest cover due to deforestation and industrialisation.

As is stands, there are more than 50 million monkeys running around in urban areas:

Unfortunately, all of this combined has led to monkey ‘gangs’ that brawl in the cities, often resulting in some heavy collateral damage.

On October 6, Laxman Tulsiani, a gold dealer, and Veera, a caretaker, were examining a construction site in Agra, when a monkey showdown led to a wall collapsing on and killing them.

Earlier in the year, a family was crushed to death when the wall behind them was violently shaken by a troop of fighting monkeys in the Shahjahanpur district.

Since 2015, at least 13 deaths have occurred as a result of the troop wars, with more than 1 000 cases of monkey bites reported every day in Indian cities.

Here they are taking a break from warring with other monkeys to jump on some humans:

In India, cultural beliefs also impact the way that the monkeys are treated. The monkey deity is one of the most popular gods in Hindu mythology.

“People call me to relocate monkeys in urban areas, but I can’t bear to see them caged. After all, they are our lord Bajrangbali,” Ravi Kumar, a monkey chaser in Delhi, told VICE News. Kumar, who chases monkeys by imitating their sound, describes himself as a “security guard for monkeys”.

A number of solutions have been put forward, including sterilisation to assist in population control.

Malik reckons that the authorities should set up monkey sanctuaries in cities where they can forage for food and stay out of trouble.

For now, they’re running around unchecked, and things are escalating.

[source:vice]