Exploring Monkey Forest

We were off to see the Crab Eating Macaques or Balinese Long-Tail monkeys of Monkey Forest Sanctuary.  These are the meet and greet guys, one human, and one monkey.

The grounds are well kept with lovely shaded paths to follow that protect you from the relentless heat of the sun.   There are so many varieties of birds and plants, this is when you wish you were with a knowledgeable guide who knows all the names, so we went with pretty yellow bird, big green leaf with stripes, we did know the name of the monkeys, just not gender.

There are five groups in the Forest each group occupying a different part of the park and they are very territorial, so with the increasing population of monkeys and humans visiting the park daily they do well by not having too many incidents.  The caretakers carry slingshots to subdue the more aggressive monkeys who are bothering the tourists, and yes, unfortunately they do attack people and bite them.  I do believe before you visit the park you should be fully informed on what is happening in real time with the monkeys and what diseases are being passed onto humans from the monkey bites in the park.  The politicians would like to cull the monkeys in the park but there has not been any movement towards culling or moving the monkeys to a different forest.  The monkeys are wild animals, yet we get lulled into thinking how cute they are and the little tricks they perform for the tourists, but there are another 500 hundred monkeys still not ready to perform for the tourists…

We have found the eyes on Orangutans and Monkeys to be very expressive.  These fellows look quite natty with their fuzzy faces.

‘A little more to the right, ahh, that’s the spot’.

This was a family affair of picking and scratching, they seem to do this a lot – which leads to the questions what the heck is living in their fur?

This was nice to see, not her picking at his bum but the fact they were getting along, as they do fight a lot over food, males fighting males, older adolescents chasing young ones, that wouldn’t be so bad but they scream and growl and show very large teeth.

They were grooming each other all along the pathway, this fellow was finding many good things to pop into his mouth.

We passed this guy trying to break into the cage that held the  sweet potatoes, 45 minutes later he was still there and he wouldn’t let any of the other monkeys come near his treasure.

The little ones too old and big to be protected by their moms spend a lot of time in the trees and on the roofs to get away from being attacked by the other monkeys.  We found the Komodo dragons did the same thing, hung out in the tree tops and on the roofs to get away from the older males.

John looking very ‘comfortable’ with a monkey on his shoulder, you can pay $4 to have the monkey eat bananas whilst you get a great photo moment.

Pssst, I’m ready for my next banana, you look a little nervous…