The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

[Josh Greenman <joshg1973 AT yahoo.com>]

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/041102/ap/d863k83o0.html

Tuesday, November 2

300 children bitten by 'blood sucking' monkeys at famous Indian temple

Monkeys lurking at an ancient Hindu temple in India's northeast have attacked 
up to 300
children over three weeks, temple officials said Tuesday. 

"They hide in trees and swoop on unsuspecting children loitering about in the 
temple
premises or walking by, clawing them and even sucking a bit of blood," Bani 
Kumar Sharma,
a priest at the Kamakhya temple in Assam state, told The Associated Press. 
The temple,
one of the most famous in India, is located in Gauhati, Assam's capital. 

"I was returning home from school when a monkey suddenly pounced on me, 
scratched my head
and hand and pushed me to the ground," said Jolly Sharma, a 6-year-old girl. 

At least 2,000 rhesus monkeys roam in and around the temple, but none had 
shown
aggressive behavior in the past, the priest said. 

Monkeys are often found in tens of thousands of temples across India. They 
are seen as a
symbol of Hanuman, the mythical monkey god, and devotees visiting temples 
often feed
them. While occasional attacks by monkeys are not uncommon at temples, the 
sudden surge
in attacks at the Gauhati temple has experts perplexed. 

Some say the Gauhati monkeys may be turning violent because of shrinking 
living spaces,
or because animals once kept as pets might not have been able to adjust to 
new lives
around the temple. 

"The loss of habitat due to increased human settlement in the hills around 
the temple and
the release of monkeys kept confined at home ... could be among the reasons 
for some of
the monkeys behaving in a weird manner," said Narayan Mahanta, a wildlife 
official in
Gauhati. 

Three monkeys were randomly tranquilized by wildlife officials over the 
weekend and have
been taken to the Gauhati Zoo where they will be examined in search of clues 
to explain
the changing behavior, Mahanta said.