Japanese authorities are hunting a rogue monkey believed to have injured up to 18 people, mostly children and elderly citizens, amid a nearly two-week string of violent attacks.
The first Japanese macaque attack occurred on July 8 when the primate climbed into an apartment in the Ogori district of Yamaguchi city and tried to pull a baby out of the window, suffering multiple wounds.
The baby’s mother said she was alarmed by her child’s screams and shooed the monkey away before calling on authorities to capture the animal “as soon as possible”.
“He grabbed her legs as she played on the floor. It looked like it was trying to pull her outside,” she told local news outlets.
The monkey reportedly attacked five other people in the same district before entering an elementary school on July 11, where it scratched a student, and three days later attacked a four-year-old girl at a nearby kindergarten.
Police are now on high alert and are working with wildlife authorities to set traps for the animal.
Residents of the town of Yamauchi have been warned not to leave their windows open and to report any monkey sightings to authorities – but the frenzied primate is still at large.
Yakei, a famous female Japanese macaque who became the alpha of her tribe by attacking several high-ranking males, is pictured
Other victims of the macaque include several elderly people who were attacked outside their homes as they were hanging out their laundry.
Hundreds of thousands of Japanese macaques live in the wild throughout Japan.
But their presence in urban centers has increased in recent years as their interactions with humans have reduced their natural dislike of large crowds.
The animals typically weigh about 20 to 25 pounds and are only about 50 to 60 cm tall, but they are considerably stronger than a human of the same size.
However, monkeys are by no means the worst of the myriad wild animals that have begun to make their way into Japanese cities.
The reduction in wilderness areas and decreasing access to food has forced many species to migrate to urban centers in search of food, often encountering unsuspecting residents.
Bears and wild boar are among the most notorious offenders, with sightings and attacks of both increasing significantly in recent years.
On the northernmost main island of Hokkaido alone, bear sightings rose from 381 in 2020 — when a black bear terrorized a mall before being shot by a hunter — to a staggering 2,197 last year.
And wild boars ran amok in a park in Hiroshima last year, injuring six people before they too were shot.
The monkey’s rampage through the streets of the town of Yamauchi comes when an Indian macaque killed a young boy by throwing him off a roof in a village in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India.
The terrible incident happened in the rural village of Dunka, near the town of Bareilly, where Nirdesh Upadhyay was standing with his wife and young son on the terrace of his three-story house.
The trio were enjoying a lazy Friday night up on the patio when a pod of primates climbed onto the roof and surrounded them.
The trio were enjoying a lazy Friday night up on the patio when a pod of primates climbed onto the roof and surrounded them
The horrific incident took place in the rural village of Dunka near Bareilly in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (Dunka building pictured).
After futile attempts to knock the monkeys away, the new parents ran to the stairs in an attempt to escape, but Nirdesh, carrying his son, stumbled and dropped the child.
In a split second before either parent could react, one of the monkeys grabbed the little boy’s hand and threw him off the roof.
Distraught, the parents managed to get back inside and rush to their son’s aid, but the infant reportedly died at the scene.
The incident is currently being investigated by Shahi Police Station authorities and Bareilly City Conservation Chief Lalit Verma told PTI News his team had been dispatched to investigate monkey involvement in the child’s death.
Uttar Pradesh is home to a huge population of rhesus monkeys that roam free in many towns in the state.
Although the primates can generally live in relative harmony with the humans who live in these settlements, there are a number of documented instances of the monkeys attacking humans, particularly children.
