Monkey Stories

 By Sara:

A few weeks ago, Anthony and I traveled to Moyo, in northwestern Uganda, for a Helping Without Hurting in Africa training and agriculture trainings. 

While we were there, I discussed with the farmer pastors about some of the pest challenges they have in their areas.  One of the biggest issues is monkeys and baboons destroying their crops.  This is especially difficult because those animals are protected by the government, so it is illegal to kill them.  And at the same time, they are incredibly destructive to food crops, which endangers the lives of the people depending on that food for their survival.  I have read a lot of articles and studies on ways people try to keep monkeys away from their crops and there really aren't any non-lethal fail-proof methods, so I asked the group if anyone had tried anything that worked.  Here are a couple stories.

An old man who was always drunk was annoyed that baboons were eating his crops.  Then it came to him: if baboons eat people food, maybe they'll also drink people drinks!  He put out some alcohol where the baboons always came and watched to see what they would do.  They sniffed it, tasted it, and liked it.  By the time they were done, there were a bunch of drunk baboons around.  The old man chose a big male baboon and since it was drunk, it followed him willingly home where he tied a bell around its neck.  When it got sober, it ran off to rejoin its friends, but chased them away by the ringing of the bell.

A similar story came from someone whose family member caught a monkey and tied a bell around its neck.  When he released it, it went directly back to the other monkeys who are "still running from it to this day"!

After telling these stories, someone said, yes, but just remember to be careful trying to catch one because they are very dangerous.  There was a guy who would sit on a big rock where he was above the surrounding land and could see baboons coming from far off.  From his perch, he would shoot them with a slingshot to chase them away.  But the baboons observed him closely and one day, some distracted him by coming at him from the front while two big ones snuck up from behind and pushed him off the rock.  He broke his back and was lame as a result.

So...next time you're around monkeys or baboons, watch out!