The Kaohsiung City Council passed regulations prohibiting the feeding of monkeys at the city's Takao Hill (打狗山) on Jan. 17. Any act of charity towards the monkeys is now punishable by an NT$6,000 fine. It has done little, though, to stop all the monkey business at Takao Hill, activists and animal conservationists say.
The Formosan rock macaque monkeys (
"Because the monkeys can get food so easily, they have become spoiled and have learned how to beg for food from mountain climbers ... they even aggressively snatch food away. It's unnatural," said Yang Ping-yu (楊娉育), the executive general of the Takao Hill Park Association (柴山自然公園促進會).
The 330m-high hill has long been home to the species. Their activities were first recorded in 1862 by English zoologist Robert Swinhoe, who named the endemic round-faced monkey Macaca cyclopis in his book Formosan Mammalians.
The species is known for its dark gray skin and cheek pouches, which it uses to carry food in while foraging.
The macaque consumes fruits, leaves, berries, seeds, insects and small vertebrate animals. It's tail, however, is medium length and not prehensile, making it impossible for it to assist the monkey when it climbs trees.
Swinhoe sent a pair of the Formosan rock macaques to a zoo in London and the exhibition reportedly drew a lot of attention from Western biologists.
Today, some 700 to 1,000 of the monkeys live on what foreigners once called Ape Hill.
However, Swinhoe probably never expected that over 130 years of attention from humans would threaten the species.
Mismanaged Park
While the Kaohsiung City government has mapped out 500 hectares of the hill as a protected area, the park has no designated entrance.
Traveling along an almost hidden cement path beside Lungchuan Temple (龍泉寺), in the Gushan district (鼓山區) of Kaohsiung city, mountain climbers who visit for the first time might have difficulty imagining the majestic scenery that's hidden behind the temple.
Dozens of families who live near the temple have complained that their quality of life has been ruined by thousands of day hikers forced to share limited parking space, as well as by hawkers who sell their wares at the base of the hill.
But even before the mountain opened to the public, residents complained about the monkeys, which invaded their backyards, scavenging for any available food.
"People have come now and the monkeys have retreated. A new battle is taking place on the mountain," one resident said.
Conservationists say the conflict could be attributed to the government's over-development of the area, which has added numerous pavilions, park benches and pathways to the mountain.
Walking on a wooden-plank footpath, visitors can tour the hill within the span of an hour -- provided they aren't distracted by monkeys along the way.
"We've found that monkeys seem to prefer walking on pathways to swinging in the woods," said Huang Li-ting (
In the mountain, it is common for visitors to have to make way for a group of monkeys running along the footpath.
While resting at one of the pavilions, visitors are often approached by monkeys begging and screaming for food. Many say they find the urge to feed the monkeys irresistible despite the law.
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