DEAR Editor,-
I am sure the monkeys would agree with D Bain (SCH March 31) and would like nothing better to do than live their lives in peace in the wilderness, away from humans who seem hell-bent on causing them harm on a daily basis.
Monkeys’ natural predators are around, but the problem is humans keep shooting the eagles that prey on them and remove snakes for safety, yet these also prey on monkeys.
Man is the biggest predator anyway – shooting, poisoning, setting dogs on them, running them over, and let’s not forget electrocution.
Bush babies are nocturnal, so maybe that’s why D Bain has not seen one here on the South Coast (or maybe we have wiped them out due to the indiscriminate clearing of natural vegetation).
Yes, eggs and fledglings are part of a monkey’s natural diet, but the Burchell’s coucal rainbird and several other bird species also raid each other nests for food. That is just the ‘way of the jungle’.
There has been no recorded case of a monkey having contracted rabies in South Africa. People and organisations working with monkeys would love to receive donations towards relocating monkeys, but where do they send them?
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Who will pay for the trapping and transportation – and who will oversee the relocation? And let’s not forget that not every monkey will be caught.
So we are back to square one – monkeys having to try and coexist with humans or humans having to coexist with monkeys.
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