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Monkeys
Apr 16, 2015 15:54:42 GMT 8
Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2015 15:54:42 GMT 8
Hello All, At another point I'll need to write up my trip last month to Corregidor. It was an interesting trip if all too short, with one night camping and one night in the Corregidor Inn. I met Steve and Marcia far too late, but I had a good time exploring on my own and finding places important to the people I'm writing about in my book. It's because of the book that I don't have too much time to write and I haven't even tagged or described the photos I took yet (but you can scroll through this album of pictures from the entire trip - which also included other parts of the Philippines and a lot of time in China - here and find them: www.flickr.com/photos/bill_lascher/sets/72157651094128715/). Anyhow, I'm writing because while I was on Corregidor I had a number of encounters with the island's monkeys. It made me wonder where the monkeys came from. Are they endemic to the island or were they brought there. If the latter, when? And if brought there, were they there during the war or brought later? If they were there during the war, were they used for food or were there other interactions with them? I tried searching on the forum and didn't find many answers, but I didn't look terribly hard either. Any clues? Thanks, Bill
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Monkeys
Apr 17, 2015 14:48:13 GMT 8
Post by Registrar on Apr 17, 2015 14:48:13 GMT 8
There have been monkeys naturally on the island a long time, even pre-war, so it was inevitable that some were domesticated as pets. Several years ago, when their numbers started to expand, a program to capture and resell (for medical research) was put into place. It didn't last forever, and so now the population has blown out beyond reasonable numbers. Monkeys carry rabies in the Philippines, and the prospect of their biting tourists is not nice, and some monkeys have been (quietly) shot for getting too close. There does need to be population control, but first, I'd like to see all the cats off the island. They were claimed to be there for the rats, but anyone who wants to wipe out rats should have trained terriers, not cats. Cats decimate the bird and lizard populations, and are inconsistent with any pretense to Corregidor being an ecologically managed resort, which of course it isn't. I have little doubt that Monkeys were eaten when caught - indeed, they still are, and on Corregidor too. Parts of their anatomy are said to promote manliness when eaten. What a crock!
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Monkeys
Apr 17, 2015 20:59:50 GMT 8
Post by batteryboy on Apr 17, 2015 20:59:50 GMT 8
Registrar is right about the origins of the monkeys. About a year or two ago, one big monkey that was said to have harassed the islanders and even a few tourist was shot so as not to inflict any more threat or harm. I encountered that said monkey when I was walking from Middleside Barracks to Battery Way. Looks like it had been leader of a group. I had my bolo clutched on my hand in case he tried to do something foolish. Now, they are getting closer to the hotel.. There were two of them in the tree just off the veranda of the Corregidor Inn during lunch time. These are not small monkeys but medium sized ones.
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Post by beirutvet on Apr 18, 2015 1:24:55 GMT 8
Hello blascher
I enjoyed your photo album.
I noticed a couple of the photos from China appeared to be taken in Chungqing, is that correct? Specifically the one of the bronze archer at the top of the old city wall looked VERY similar if not the exact one I saw when I was there.
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Post by The Phantom on May 19, 2015 6:48:10 GMT 8
Batteryboy, I also saw a big monkey in the tree by the verandah one morning while eating breakfast in February this year. When he climbed down I heard a shot.............
At that time in January and February 2015, the monkeys had overrun the hotel. I witnessed them going through the trash bags at the back of the Hotel and taking the bags up on the roof to sort though and eat. It was above the rooms EXO used to like on the northeast side. When i told the hotel staff about the monkeys they chased them away but trash was left all over the roof. The monkeys have acquired a taste for the chips sold on the island. They pick up the discarded bags left along the roads and trails and eat the remaining chips.
I also observed the trams being cleaned out by the station where they are parked, by the old coal basin, and the chip bags were thrown into a 50 gallon drum where the monkeys congregate to eat the chips etc.,sitting on the ground talking and chimissing about the day...........
The Hotel staff said that at one time the monkeys had come through the hotel windows by the tourist kiost and were sitting on the counter ripping open the chip bags and eating them there.
I had also faced down the bigger, more aggressive, Monkey you talk about batteryboy, also had my machete out. He had a big troop. It was said he had been raised by the workers on the island until he got to big and aggressive, so they threw him out. The story goes that he went back one day when they were at work and took their clothes and hung them in the tops of the trees!
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