No more feeding: Stop monkeying around with our wildlife

Feeding the monkeys is a popular tourist attraction at Selangor's Batu Caves complex but it's an activity that needs to stop to avoid human-animal conflict. — ONG SOON HIN/The Star

First it was the dusky langurs, culled in Port Dickson, Negri Sembilan, following public complaints, and then a troop of nine monkeys were found poisoned on a hillside in Paya Terubong, Penang. A few weeks prior to that, a troop of 40 to 45 macaques were filmed swaggering onto the porches and roofs of homes near the Penang Botanical Gardens. It seems like lately, primates are in the news for all the wrong reasons.

The primate group of mammals includes lemurs, tarsiers, apes and also humans. Malaysia has one of the most diverse primate fauna in the world, hosting around 25 species from five families; the more well-known species include the orang utan, gibbon and long-tailed macaques.