Japanese law enforcement was forced to act after monkeys in a southwestern city in the country went on a rampage, attacking, biting, and clawing residents and trying to snatch babies from their homes.
On Wednesday, authorities said that they were able to kill a monkey that they believe was among the rampaging groups. The news came as a relief to the people of Yamaguchi city, where 56 victims have been attacked by a monkey this month, including a baby girl who was injured in her home and a four-year-old girl pounced on at a kindergarten.
Japanese Monkey Attacks
Officials expect that the marauding macaque that was killed on Tuesday will not be the last to be executed in Japan for attacking humans. The vice principal of the Yamaguchi kindergarten, Yasuko Sanada, said on Wednesday that monkeys were still running through the school's playground.
The school official said that they received a warning from police and have stopped letting children from playing outside. Recently, Japan's macaque population has thrived, largely due to conservation efforts that started after World War II, as per the New York Times.
The monkey population's recovery has paradoxically "provoked and intensified" human-macaque conflicts to the point where people living near the animals now face serious risks of having their own habitats invaded, said primate expert Hiroto Enari.
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The attacks in Yamaguchi are unusually dramatic, said Enari, who teaches wildlife management at Yamagata University. However, if humans give them many opportunities to learn, they might cause even more conflict.
According to the Associated Press, the attacks began on July 8 and have become so severe that Yamaguchi city hall hired a special unit to hunt the animals with tranquilizer guns. Authorities noted that the monkeys are not interested in food, which means that traps have not been effective. The animals have mostly targeted children and the elderly in the area.
Avoiding Traps
On Wednesday, city official Masato Saito said that the monkeys were smart and tend to snake up and attack from behind, mostly grabbing people by their legs. He told residents that if they are confronted by a monkey, they should not look them in the eye, make themselves look as big as possible, and quietly back away without making any sudden moves.
A woman was reportedly assaulted by a macaque while she was hanging laundry on her veranda. Another victim was shown with bandaged toes after being attacked by one of the animals. Victims were taken aback and frightened by how big and fat the monkeys that confronted them.
One city official, who declined to be named, said that it was extremely rare to see the number of attacks in such a short period of time. They noted that initially the monkeys were only targeting children and women but noted that they later turned their focus on elderly and adult men.
Local media reported victims receiving anything from scratches, bitten legs, and hands, to bitten necks and stomachs. Some residents have also reported multiple incursions in their homes as the monkeys gain access by sliding screen doors or entering through open windows, BBC reported.
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