Monkeys

I remember childhood family visits to the zoo either in Edinburgh (where my aunt, uncle and cousin lived) or at Calderpark Zoo which was about ten minutes from where we stayed in Bothwell. Memories of these visits are mixed. I associate them with ice cream, lollipops and picnics under sunny skies (in Scotland?).  I loved the penguins and the chimpanzees. The incongruity of them being in Scotland was lost on a child’s mind. I hated the cages. As I got older I began to feel very uncomfortable visiting the rather sad looking animals in these places. And I have never much enjoyed invading animals’ space in the wild. To my shame I’ve been on safaris, mostly in Sri Lanka (the result – terrified, as the ‘World War 2’ Land Rover we were in did not look like it would last another minute and certainly would not have offered any protection from the leopard which I spotted before the guide or the too numerous elephants who surrounded us at one point), and Africa (the result – uncomfortable, as the fancy jeeps just seemed to encroach too much on the animals who I felt just wanted to be left alone to get on with their lives and could do without strangers in their noisy vehicles chasing them all over the place).  I prefer to respect animals’ privacy and leave them alone really. However I don’t mind them invading my space from time to time. 

My house down south is surrounded by a variety of wildlife. At any one time we can have squirrels, monkeys, snakes, monitor lizards, scorpions, parrots, sea eagles, bats, doves, kingfishers and paradise flycatchers. All sorts. Some are beautiful, some are scary, some are funny. Monkeys though – nightmare or amusement or a bit of both? The house is surrounded by trees which are the playground of a troop of monkeys. Of course the house and garden also become their playground from time to time, although with three dogs they are reluctant to actually come down to the lawn, unless there is a juicy piece of papaya lying on the ground. They love the jambu, mango and papaya trees. For my mum they provide hours of amusement and are a rare source of anticipated pleasure.

At breakfast, monkeys are a talking point. Are they in the trees in front? Have they been heard but not seen? Is there fruit out on the bird table for them? Will they be around later? The state of the blue water lily or “Nil Mahanel” in the pond is the other common breakfast topic. Is it open? Will it open today? Is there one just below the surface? But the monkeys provide much more amusement than the flower. They are often to be seen on the tall palm trees while we are having breakfast. Then when there is fruit out, you will see them swinging across the trees till they are perched in the jambu tree from which hangs the bird table. A quick tug of the wire holding the table and either a monkey will appear and climb down till it can reach the table and grab the fruit, or it will pull the table up to it so it can take the fruit.

When there are young ones around they can cause havoc racing along the wall of the garden and jumping over each other then clattering over my roof and my neighbour’s roof. They can swing so much from the trees and bushes that the branches break. My mum can be sitting on the porch quietly and I am in the study doing some work, when all of a sudden their presence is announced with loud deep throaty calls. They leap between the two jambu trees in search of other fruit trees. I am still trying to catch on photo one in flight between these two trees. By the time you click the camera they have reached the other tree. They clatter over the tiled roofs making such a racket you would think that there were millions of them. They are another thing that my mum counts. She will tell me how many have been on the wall recently, how many are up the palm tree, how many were swinging between the jambu trees, how many climbed down the wire, how many went over the neighbour’s roof, how many climbed along the telephone wire.

They are a menace though. Tiles fall off the roof, are broken, move so they are balanced precariously at the edge of the roof. Branches break, fruit is stolen. I came out one day to find one menacing monkey up a papaya tree with a whole papaya in its hand looking as if it was about to drop it on Crazy, my alsation/beach dog mix,  who was directly underneath and barking up at it.  We all try different ways of getting rid of them. Clapping hands, hitting trees with various objects, making loud monkey like noises, are all tried and tested local methods with varying degrees of success.  I tried the water hose at Xmas. At first it was effective then they seemed to decide that actually a shower was quite refreshing. And I couldn’t get the hose to stay on the tap so that just ended up as a rather frustrating experience all round. I came down one weekend to find Molly, my Emirati desert dog (no idea what she thought monkeys were – don’t get them in the desert!) who used to bark at the monkeys, going into trembling fits every time they appeared. I thought she had been attacked by a monkey. It turned out that our next door neighbor had gotten so annoyed with the monkeys that he had started shooting very loud fireworks at them every time they appeared. The noise freaked the dogs out. He did it so often that every time the monkeys appeared (regardless of whether or not he fired things at them) Molly would tremble with fear. Now she’s completely deaf so it doesn’t bother her.

We’ve had various dramas with the monkeys too. The most recent was during the two week visit of my brother and family. They rented the house next door (Hibiscus Cottage and on Trip Advisor just in case anyone is interested in a rental). This particular troop of monkeys that is around these days has one rogue monkey. He took to preening himself using their windows to view his reflection. Then he came half in the window which has bars. I said confidently to my brother and family, “Don’t worry, he can’t possibly get completely in.” Wrong! My brother’s wife was cooking quietly in the kitchen when she felt the palms of hands on her rear end. Turning, expecting to see my brother, she came face to face with this monkey.  We were all sitting on my porch next door when we heard the rather strangled cry for help. We rushed over to find the monkey sitting on one of the lamp shades in the house looking at us. Chaminda to the rescue! With the help of a large broom, he eventually managed to get it out by providing an escape route by opening all the windows and doors.

Nightmare or amusement?  I’m quite happy to have them around and much prefer having them invade my space periodically (as long as they don’t get too close!) than the other way round.