The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

[Jeremy Salmon <jdsalmon AT engin.umich.edu>]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/0102/28/world/world11.html

Criminal monkeys just love to get behind bars 


Gangs of monkeys are behind a wave of burglaries in the port city of
Durban.

The adaptable vervets have become ingenious and efficient raiders who
break into houses to search for food.

The vervets, also known as green monkeys, enter properties in large
numbers and even post lookouts in garden trees to alert them to any
threats from humans or dogs.

The monkeys, about 75 centimetres tall, like to squeeze through security
bars and small windows.

They have adapted to the urban jungle as Durban's rapid expansion into a
city of 2 million has cut into their forest habitat. They have been helped
by their appetite for almost any kind of food and an ability to survive on
the ground or in trees.

Many people consider them to be vermin and want them removed from within
Durban's rapidly expanding boundaries. Others complain that the monkeys
make it impossible to grow fruit and vegetables because they devour the
crops before they can be harvested.

The monkeys also find themselves the objects of road rage - when they dart
out in front of cars, often as they are being chased by dogs.

Police have rejected the idea of shooting or poisoning the monkeys, but
that does not stop residents from taking potshots at monkeys that feed in
their suburban gardens.

The gunshot victims - those that survive - get some help and sympathy from
Ms Misty Corton, an animal-lover who drives around the streets trying to
rescue monkeys injured by bullets, cars, dogs and snares. She takes many
of them to an animal rescue charity, where they are nursed back to health.

The hope is that these injured monkeys - many of which are orphans or
young males expelled from a troop by dominant males - will form a
close-knit gang that will look after each other in the wild.

Some are sent to a private sanctuary 320 kilometres outside Durban, where
they are kept until they can be released into the bush.

There are some areas of the city where the larcenous monkeys can
flourish; Durban's many golf courses and parks are havens where they can
raise their young and find temporary refuge from the hazards of urban
life.


The Telegraph, London



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