A monkey's tale

Between you and I, I've seen enough monkeys in the past 30 days to last me a life time. It started with my trip to the Botanic Gardens at the end of last month. I was making my rounds of the garden when I saw this monkey putting its head into a hole in the tree.


Of course, the Penang Flora Fair was going on at the time. At one of the exhibitions, these two dusky-leaf monkeys were on display. Caged and frightened. Would you be scared too if you were put inside a small cage for curious people to gawk at you?


Yes, people of all ages were look at them, as if they haven't seen monkeys before. Or maybe they were thinking that looking at these caged monkeys would be an educational experience. How sad. How very sad. Anyway, I thought it was very ironical because the exhibitors were attempting to promote Penang's Nature Heritage. I say, you don't promote nature by showing off caged monkeys, okay?


Then, of course, I have already highlighted earlier this week the plight of this monkey - together with another one - that's left on permanent display at the Dewan Sri Pinang.


Those are the two sad monkey tales. Now for some happier ones. Recently, I was wandering up the Bukit Mertajam Hill again. Took a slow climb and enjoyed the drop in temperature. There were a lot of monkeys that day, the majority of which was the long-tailed macaque. Here's one of them relaxing near the tea hut at the half-way point up the hill. Ooo ... you should have seen its balls... On humans, the size would proportionately perhaps be like ... a rugby ball??


The dusky-leaf monkey is a minority at the hill but can still be seen. Being patient has its rewards. I saw a whole bunch of them there. Here's a curious one. It was peering out at me from the tree.


I've one more monkey picture but I'll leave it to another day.