Monkey Guarding Program
Inspired by the works of the Jane Goodall Institute Singapore and their Monkey Guards Programme, Animal Neighbours Project has set out on a quest to bring this practice to Malaysia. Monkey guarding seeks to encourage coexistence by creating a safe space between humans and macaques.
It involves the principles of negative reinforcement by having trained monkey guards stationed at residential hotspots to deter wild macaques by hitting a stick on the ground to make a noise or waving it in their direction. Monkey guarding has to be carried out in a safe and respectful manner as it does not seek to eliminate sightings of macaques.
The goal is for the macaques to become wary of entering residential areas, thus reducing the chances of conflict. Monkey guards also learn how to behave around wild macaques to avoid negative interactions and thus are encouraged to pass the knowledge on to the public.
If you like working outdoors and are interested in monkey guarding, and we will get in touch.
Services Provided
Advocacy
Under the GCRF seed funding, the project worked with a local custom works designer in Malaysia to design a monkey-proof bin using a novel latch in urban areas where complaints are that monkeys get access to bins
Residential action plan
In 2019, ‘Urban Human-Monkey Conflict Community Workshops’ were hosted in Malaysia which succeeded to gather over 60 participants ranging from residents, researchers, NGOs and government officials.
These workshops were a platform to bring people of different backgrounds together and empower them to come up with multidisciplinary solutions for the human-monkey conflict.
These groups are known as Local Action Groups or LAGs, with the aim to improve the interactions between humans and monkeys. LAG’s continue to engage with ANP to manage the problem locally.
Despite limited resources, the team achieved preliminary success with an agreement by local authorities to stop trapping monkeys in urban areas while the project works with the local community to develop long term mitigation strategies.
Rescue and release of monkeys that were stuck inside resident’s homes with local authorities
Improving park bins
Monkeys get food easily from bins in parks. Forward planning is needed in the future when parks have wildlife nearby to avoid such issues.
One of our implementations was a simple renovation, to install steel flaps to reduce the amount of opening space on the current park bins to minimise the chance of bin raidings
Location: Bukit Jalil Recreational Park, Kuala Lumpur
Monkey-proofing student dorms in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM)
A total of 5 blocks in Kolej Burhanuddin Helmi, UKM and 22 blocks in Kolej Ibrahim Yaakub, UKM were installed with fencing and automatic door-closers to discourage monkeys from entering.