A group of monkeys in a small town in India took "revenge" on the local dog population this month by throwing them off of the top of tall buildings and trees. It is reported that the monkeys have killed about 250 pups in the process and are now targeting villagers.
The monkeys, located in Majalgaon, India started the rampage after some of the dogs allegedly killed an infant monkey. News18 reported that when the monkeys see a dog approach, they catch them and throw them from a significant height to the ground.
In the neighboring village of Lavool the monkeys have fully eradicated all of the dogs. After all of the dogs were killed in the village, residents contacted forest department officials to catch the monkeys. But when officials attempted to catch the monkeys, they were unable to capture a single monkey.
Villagers believe the monkeys are taking revenge on the dogs, News18 reported. Now, villagers in Lavool are being chased by the monkeys, some have even been attacked.
According to Stephanie Poindexter, an assistant professor at SUNY Buffalo whose research focuses on primate behavioral ecology, said studies have shown that animals—primarily monkeys—can practice revenge.
"We've seen that when an individual is attacked in some way, the likelihood of them attacking someone related to their aggressor is higher," Poindexter told Gizmodo. "Typically there's a preference for attacking a third-party associated with the original aggressor, as opposed to the actual aggressor...for the most part, these acts of 'revenge' take place shortly after the attack."
Poindexter also explained that groups of hyenas have been known to seek revenge on the aggressor's relatives instead of the actual aggressor.
After the forest department was unable to capture any of the monkeys, villagers began attempting to rescue the dogs on their own. But some of them have found themselves subject to the monkeys' retaliation, and some have even injured themselves or fallen from buildings, News18 reported.
Villagers reported that now there are barely any dogs left in the area but that the monkeys have not stopped even after a month of attacks. Now, villagers reported that the monkeys are targeting small children which has created a panic within the village.
In Malaysia, a wild monkey captured a puppy and held it hostage at the top of a tree for three days. According to locals in the area, the puppy was about two-weeks-old when the macaque kidnapped it.
Macaques are notorious for being extremely intelligent but also sneaky. Some locals have seen the monkeys raiding their pantries, snatching clothes and going through fridges. Due to the growing number of complaints, Malaysia's Department of Wildlife and National Parks began culling thousands of macaques a year.
But many believed the monkey was not trying to hurt the puppy, but rather care for it as its own.
"It looked like it was treating the puppy as a friend or its baby, it was very strange," Cherry Lew Yee Lee, a bystander, told Newsflare.
Footage of the incident showed the pup attempting to get out of the monkey's grip, but it was unsuccessful. Eventually, residents were able to scare the monkey into dropping the puppy into the greenery below.
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