The attacks – on 58 people since July 8 – are getting that bad. Yamaguchi city hall hired a special unit to hunt down the animals with tranquilizer guns. Monkeys are not interested in food, so the traps have not worked. They have mainly targeted children and the elderly. “They are so smart, and they tend to hide and attack from behind, often grabbing your legs,” city official Masato Saito said Wednesday. When confronted by a monkey, the instructions are: Don’t look him in the eye, make yourself look as big as possible, such as by opening your coat, and then walk away as quietly as possible without making any sudden movements, according to Saito. A woman was attacked by a monkey while hanging clothes on her porch. Another victim showed bound toes. They were surprised and frightened by how big and fat the monkeys were. The monkeys terrorizing the community are Japanese macaques, the species often depicted peacefully bathing in hot springs. A male monkey, 49 centimeters (1.6 feet) tall and weighing 7 kilograms (15 pounds), was caught on Tuesday by the team with a tranquilizer gun. From various evidence he was judged to be one of the attacking monkeys and was killed. But more attacks were reported after the arrest. No one has been seriously injured so far. However, all have been advised for hospital treatment. In some cases, ambulances were called. Although Japan is industrialized and urban, a fair portion of the land in the archipelago is mountains and forests. Rare attacks on humans by bears, boars, or other wild animals have occurred, but generally not by monkeys. No one seems to know why the attacks took place and where exactly the monkey army came from remains unclear. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my entire life,” Saito said. Copyright © 2022 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
