PETALING JAYA, Jan 5 — A woman in Ipoh was attacked by a monkey four days ago after her hike at the popular Kledang Hill.
According to Sin Chew Daily, the woman was left with a nasty two-inch gash on her left calf after she was bitten by the monkey at around 11 am in the morning.
The victim said that she and her friend were walking to their car at the parking lot at the base of the hill after their run, when she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her leg, only to realise that a monkey had sunk its teeth into her.
She also said that she didn’t attempt to provoke the animal in any way and didn’t try to feed it either as she had no food on her.
“Authorities quickly treated and bandaged her wound and contacted the ambulance to take her to the hospital, just in case the monkey transferred any viruses or bacterial infections through the wound,” Menglembu community police chief Cao Jinhe told Sin Chew.
Cao said that these wild monkeys have inhabited the Kledang Hill area for a number of years already as members of the public continuously feed the animals, providing them ample amounts of food.
The act of feeding the animals alters their natural behaviour, as they become somewhat reliant on people to feed them and less afraid of approaching or being near humans.
He also said that there have been at least 10 encounters with hikers and monkeys within the area in the past year or two.
Cao added that although most people’s intentions are to help the animals, he believes the monkeys will stop terrorizing hikers in the area once the common feeding practice is stopped.
“We appeal to the public and hikers to stop feeding the monkeys.
“If there is no food, they won’t stay there anymore.
“Even when the attack happened that morning, we found that there were people feeding the monkeys not too far away from the scene of the attack,” said Cao.
He also said that he hopes the Department of Wildlife and National Parks will take note of these incidents, as he’s been unsuccessful so far in deterring the locals from feeding the wild animals.
In the past couple of years, there have been a number of monkey sightings on the Kledang Hill trail as many Malaysians have reported being chased or attacked by a troop of wild monkeys.
