Two 9-year-old girls were bitten by monkeys during a trip to Kam Shan Country Park yesterday. Such are the perils of “Monkey Hill.”
The girls, surnamed Lau, were passing through the country park with family members at about 5pm on Sunday when two monkeys rushed out, bit their legs, and then fled.
Family members called emergency services, and the two girls were taken to hospital where their injuries were deemed not serious, on.cc reported.
Kam Shan Country Park, also known as Monkey Hill, has the largest population of macaques in the city.
News of the monkey attack comes after a photo of two macaques climbing through a kitchen window of an apartment in Sha Tin went viral last week, with residents calling these break-ins a regular occurrence.
According to a video report by Apple Daily from Saturday, Sha Tin residents say there weren’t as many monkeys in the area 10 years ago and that they are now less afraid of people. Reporters even filmed one monkey stealing bread from an unsuspecting pedestrian while they were there for the piece.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfBFi0sF_Cg
The newspaper also reported the Mei Lam Estate in Tai Wai have put up posters saying that residents who find unwelcome monkeys entering their home should ward them off by using laser pens and slingshots.
According to Eric Lai, from Dr. Eric’s Animal Clinic in Happy Valley, neither of those solutions are good because you can either blind or injure a monkey by using either a laser pen or slingshot.
The management office for Mei Lam Estate told Apple Daily that they do have laser pens and slingshots, but did not respond to inquiries as to whether any of those items have been used to ward off monkeys.
According to the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD), there are about 2,000 wild monkeys in Hong Kong, which includes the Rhesus Macaque, the Long-tailed Macaque, and their hybrids. These monkeys are mainly distributed in Kam Shan, Lion Rock, Shing Mun Country Parks and Tai Po Kau Nature Reserve.
