| A Small
Tragedy In Kuala Lumpur |
| Travels
In Malaysia |
| Written And Photographed
by David Lavoie |
| I have been
watching a small tragedy unfold here in Kuala Lumpur. The story is hardly
unique to this lovely city, but is, unfortunately, common around the
world as our demands for living space take up more and more of our natural
resources. Compared to the huge misery of a natural disaster like the Tsunami,
it is nothing, but it must be terrifying for the little beings involved.
A troop of
about fifteen to twenty monkeys were a regular part of the scene at the
international school where my wife works. They seemed to consider the whole
campus as their territory to be shared with the fascinating big monkeys,
humans, who outnumbered them, but provided endless diversion. |
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| There were
some big males, lots of juveniles and several young females with the
most appealing little babies clinging to their bellies as they moved nimbly
about. From time to time the alpha male would stroll up and down the halls
of the school finding it completely appropriate that students scrambled
to get out of his way. The whole troop loved three things.
The spectacle
of students working on computers in the library was endlessly diverting
and often you could look at the windows and see eight or ten earnest little
faces in a row watching the shenanigans on the screens.
The swimming
pool was a source of fascination and bemusement; why are the big monkeys
jumping in the water and thrashing about? But best of all was soccer;
these monkeys were the best spectators ever and would race around the fence
top following the movement of the ball.
If swimming
was incomprehensible to them, soccer was entirely obvious and joyful. |
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| Unfortunately,
the monkeys have fallen victim to the same expanding demands of humanity
that so many other species have around the world. And like so many other
species, this little band has no where else to go.
The school
is situated on a hilltop as are many buildings in Kuala Lumpur. People
build first in the many valleys between the hills and then move up the
slopes trapping the fauna in smaller and smaller pockets of trees. Next
door a steam shovel, bulldozer and trucks have now appeared and are
busy flattening the last grove of trees on our hilltop and leveling the
hill for construction of another condominium or shopping mall.
The tree highway
the monkeys used to come to the school has been broken and they no longer
visit. Their home is being destroyed by huge roaring machines and they
are being driven into a smaller and smaller area. |
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| There is no
escape since there are buildings all around the hill. Eventually they will
have to move through human habitats to escape. They will steal food
and eat garbage. Most will die.
Some will become
dangerous to humans, possibly even rabid. The large males will become increasingly
aggressive to protect their females and young. It's a small tragedy; there
are hundreds of thousands of monkeys in Malaysia, but for these little
beings, it's Armageddon.
The following
are the previous articles David wrote for the magazine:
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