A Monkey Story

Given my long absence due to combination of hot summer and hot laptop, I missed few things to share. Here is one of them.

Late April. from inside the house I hear a loud bird chorus irrupting outside. based on the composition - i.e. participating species, loudness, and tone, my best guess was that a monkey had come. Monkey is not frequent visitor here but kind of regular as one individual comes once every year - when jackfruits are small and probably right size for him to eat. Birds don't like him at all but luckily he never stays around for more than few hours. I did not have to go out to confirm. I could hear branches being stressed - sure like birds even trees must be annoyed with this visitor.

15 -20 mins or half an hour later, birds still agitated but slowed down a lot, some small branches had suffered quite unnecessarily. I hear the visitor calling. I interpret it as a call for help and go out, try to search where he is, but fail to find initially. After some struggle I locate it. I was surprised - it wasn't the usual (sized) monkey. this one was very small and almost hiding between tree trunks just in front of me it was making a sound that my brain interpreted as 'Hi I am lost and alone can someone help me?' -ok, so it was a small monkey, looking lost and asking for help and so I 'knew' it was a juv who has strayed away from mother and now calling his mother. (this thought process gives me some idea about what reaching to conclusion may be for brain - but let me come to it later if the flow allows).

So, what do you do if a young monkey asks for help. Ensure safety - it was already safe up in the trees. risk was on ground only from the dogs. Food - there was abundant food up there, not just jackfruit, there were other figs etc too. Water - okay, that's a good idea. I fill up a bowl with water and put it on a window roof and try to talk and show him the water. He listens to me and responds with same sound repeatedly. I keep showing him water. finally he decides to calm me and drink water. reaches window roof and in a moment he spills water and bowl comes tumbling down. I feel guilty - how stupid of me to fill the bowl fully, he must not have managed to handle it.

Window roof also had some slope. so I keep the water on ground next time and watch out for dog. ask him to come down and drink while I am guarding. (if you are regular reader you probably know that I always keep water for birds anyway. if you are wondering why separate water for the monkey? shame on you. why you ask such a question when you already know that the original water is for birds? I guess we all by default find simple solutions like small hole for small cat, big hole for big cat.) anyhow, he didn't come down and after a while not seeing any other sign of he being in distress I went inside the house. Soon, he climbs down, drinks water, deliberately spills remaining water.. and there comes a dog. Now, the monkey's body language beats me. no fear, completely in control he even scares the dog somewhat and graciously climbs up. What it meant was that he wasn't a Juv. Well, none of its activity or body language so far was that of a juv but I had declared it a juv because its body size was smaller than what I had expected. With the monkey neither a juv nor in stress, the episode ended there. He stayed there for some more time, did some more damage to few more branches and was gone.

Story however didn't end there. it was back again next day. along with all of his previous days destructive style, he comes and empties the water containers. I was kind of shocked - this monkey was a bad monkey. bad as in good humans and bad humans. Okay, I have seen hoarding, stealing, even bullying for no good reason behaviour in non human life around me. but outright destructive behaviour? This monkey was simply interested in emptying all water containers, apart from breaking some tree branches etc. I did not have any clue about what to do about this monkey but at first I thought of recording its behaviour.

In second video, again the monkey doesn't know of being watched but just as it tries to spill water, I ask it not to do so. it cant see me but gets the message - but cant change itself..

Apart from it being difficult situation for me as to accept that I was confronted with a bad monkey, it was a practical difficulty too. the water which the monkey wouldn't allow to be there for anyone's use was one of most precious and highly needed thing for some 40-50 individuals. and if I refill water, it would come and empty it again. it actually gave me lot of stress for couple of days. then, I thought let me try a strong message. I sat at the window near the water, with a stick in hand, guarding the water. Monkey kept trying to come near the water, from different directions, at different speed, but I held on to both my stick and tough tone. game goes on for almost an hour and a half. now, monkey not only seems to have got the message how strongly her behaviour is unacceptable but she herself needs to drink water too.

Initiating peace talks

Monkey changes her stance. (It knows that I wont show aggression if it doesn't misbehave first.) it comes and sits on tree few feet from the window, looks at me, and offers a peace proposal. (yes, same sound - look at the last video below). I don't respond. Monkey persists. it looks so innocent and endearing that I actually feel like forgetting everything and present it with water, food, whatever I can manage. but, I keep myself in check and accept the proposal to allow it to go near the water - but with firm tone of a regulator.
As soon as I start saying 'ok, you can go and drink water, but no spilling.' monkey is on its way down. sits comfortably (now it had the permission, it knew) and drinks. leaves. Happy with this hard earned success, I too stop guarding the water.

Sure enough, Monkey didn't magically turn a well behaved individual after above incident. it kept emptying water, I refilling, but now at least there was a law - even if order was not very well established. and just as I knew it was a bad individual but ultimately only a monkey and couldn't stay angry with it when it wasn't actually doing any destruction, it also knew that even as I was a tough regulator, ultimately a well meaning individual. and therefore away from the water issue, our exchanges were cordial. once in a while, when it wanted to have a small chat, it used to come and call (same very sound) and we (I or Mom) used to respond. It kept coming for few days regularly, then at lesser frequency and then gone finally.

I am happy with the monkey gone - it was far too destructive for well being for so many happily co-existing species. but strangely I do miss it sometime. and the so very innocent and endearing sound which meant 'will you be my temporary friend so that I can get what I need from you?' is very much part of my vocabulary now. only problem is, the only person I use it with, my Mom, understands its meaning too well and unlike me, who used to get carried away with innocence aspect of it, she responds practically and raises her alertness towards any incoming non fair friendship deal :-(