Japan’s police to take measures after wild monkey rampages

Japan police are turning to tranquiliser guns in an attempt to stem the tide of wild monkey attacks that have been terrorising residents.

Within recent weeks, forty two people have been reported injured in Yamaguchi city – which includes children and the elderly.

The attacks are now being blamed on Western macaques.

However , whilst they are a common view in large parts of the country, incidents like these are unusual.

“It’s rare to see this numerous attacks in a short period of time, ” mentioned one city standard, declining to give their name. “Initially only children and females were attacked. Recently elderly people and men have been targeted as well. ”

Tries to capture the particular animals with barriers ended in failure and police patrols implemented since the initial attack in early July have failed to prevent the culprits.

Authorities are also unsure when the assaults are the work of a single fake monkey or several.

Injuries have varied, with local media reporting sufferers have received anything from scratches, bitten hip and legs and hands, in order to bitten necks plus stomachs.

Tales include a four-year-old young lady scratched during an apartment break-in, while in another instance a goof breached a pre-school classroom.

Some occupants have reported several incursions in their houses as the primates gain access by slipping screen doors or entering through open up windows.

“I noticed crying coming from the ground floor, so I hurried down, ” one particular father told Japanese press. “Then I could see a monkey hunching over my kid. ”

Once a susceptible species, Japanese macaque numbers have lately increased. They are today listed by the Worldwide Union for Preservation of Nature like a species of ” Least Concern “.

However their recovery has “triggered serious clashes between people as well as the macaques”, according to research from Yamagata University.

A reduction in distance between human beings and macaques will be blamed by the research. Shifting cultural behaviour towards macaques, changes in human behavior and changes within forest environments are given as possible reasons why.