solitary prowling monkey

this long-tailed macaque monkey has been prowling the area around bukit panjang park for quite sometime already. it must have got separated from its troop. monkeys are gregarious and they do not normally move or operate alone. in the wild, when i see one monkey, i can be very sure that there are a few others around. but this lone wild monkey has moved from its natural habitat to an urban environment.

the same monkey has been spotted along the linkway that joins the newly opened senja-cashew community club to the bukit panjang plaza. it has also been seen at the bus-stop nearest to the community club, on the side of the pang sua storm-water retention pond. of course, it has also made its presence felt at the club; hence, the above notice. i have also seen some 'kind-hearted' people feeding the 'poor' monkey.

of late, it has been spotted along the parapets and corridors of the block of flats next to the community club. that was when we got concerned and worried. i remember last year there was a report in the local papers about a monkey that was a nuisance and a menace; it entered a flat in which there were two young children, and it messed up the place. this also took place in bukit panjang.

the other story from malaysia, also reported last year, was even more scary: a monkey killing a baby.

when i contacted the agri-food and veterinary authority (ava), the officer manning the helpline told me that if i lived in a landed or private property, they could lend me a trap to catch the monkey. how about hdb dwellers? sorry, there was nothing much they could do except to advise us (living in a public estate with no apparent owner) to be alert and, of course, not to feed the monkey.

i think the community club is still in the process of contacting the relevant agencies because the monkey is still moving around the place freely and i do not see any trap around.