how strong are these monkeys?
I mean I know monkeys are strong but can they really ambush a human, and push them over a ledge? can they kidnap a human, carry them upward and drop them over a ledge?
That said, adult monkeys are pretty big (3.5-4 feet) and aren't all that light weight.
Anecdotally, a baby monkey fell into our neighbors house through bars on the roof and a group of almost 100 monkeys surrounded the house and took them all hostage till the baby was given back.
Which strikes me, because they really did “ask nicely”, not attacking humans and behaving in a measured way. Where I’m coming from is:
Is language necessary? Human crowds are most often fair (doing a revolution is quite fair, even if individual events are a bit… messy. But crowds stuff up sometimes, ie Jesus vs Romans). Might we (humans) act about as fairly if we didn’t have language at all to express our griefs? All that bullshit that goes on in courts, sometimes fair sometimes not; all the bullshit that goes on in companies about metoo: Does it “average out” the same as a crowd of angry monkeys, or are we effectively more efficient at delivering justice? Is our language a vehicle for reason, or is it just a vehicle of feelings and anger that happen to translate itself into words that seem rational?
The legitimacy of a cause depends on your value system, and who is to say what sort of value system the monkeys have. Perhaps their value system places "stick up for other monkeys" before other considerations like impartial assessment of guilt or blame.
I would say male adult monkeys in my village can (males are bigger and stronger), although they don’t. They are fast, agile and acrobatic. Except for well prepared adult humans, monkeys can throw everyone else off a ledge.
Reason so many monkeys exist in India is because they are sacred animals (to Hindus, 80% population). In our village, no one can kill them. The most one can do is throw a stone to scare them away.
The rig veda is probably what most people agree is one of the foundational texts of hinduism, but it dates to about 1500 BC.
However, the vedas probably absorbed a lot of earlier cultural tradition from the indus valley civilization, especially worship of Shiva-like deities. How much is however, debated.
just like mesopotamia, there was a lot of syncretism.
modernity tends to change culture (and especially homogenization that the interwebs promotes), and india is modernizing rapidly especially cities. culture can change very rapidly.
that being said, hanuman (rama's monkey companion) is a important diety in hinduism, and has been worshipped for many thousands of years in india and other parts of southeast asia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanuman#Historical_development
The only thing you have on dogs is that you're smart enough to move to an advantaged position that the dog doesn't understand. Like run through a door and close it, get in a car and run the dog over, grab a gun and shoot the dog, those kinds of options. If you have no options, you're fucked.
50lbs of dog is a bad opponent for a human, 2 of them and humans lose that fight fairly often. Some of the dogs in the video I saw were that size and larger; so if the monkeys can harass and herd them effectively then I'd expect them to be able to do it to a human as well.
A human prepared to fight and ready to start killing things is a completely different matter; but I don't think these critters have encountered that yet. They're probably about to.
Works for coyotes.
What the article describes is accurately described as culling, or killing for population control.
harvested lobsters with one claw have less commercial value so they are separated out. They are sold more cheaply and called "culls". A difficult entry level university course in an academic department like Chemical Engineering could be used to cull the class of students down to only those who are serious about pursuing the field; in such a case, the culls are not killed.
it's the nature of metonymy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonymy that the word cull can take on extra meanings depending on the context.
I believe the right question is, how intelligent and distempered are these monkeys?
Intelligence > brawn
Strength is mostly immaterial once I (as a hypothetical monkey) understand that I can use my agility to rip your eyeballs from their sockets, which then effectively removes your ability to pose a threat to me.
I believe the opposite is true.
If I'm smart, I will use your strengths against you.
Strength is material once you understand that this hypothetical human can use some kind of weapon or just something long and blunt to bash your brains out.
Considering the weight and power in a human leg, a swift kick would seriously harm and probably kill an average macaque. The issue is not strength here.
18kg is the average weight of a 5 year old kid [1]. It’s pretty routine for women in childcare roles to pick up kids for various reasons.
1. https://www.disabled-world.com/calculators-charts/height-wei...
https://www.pnas.org/content/114/28/7343
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2138714-chimps-are-not-...
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2138714-chimps-are-not-...
Haftor can't really do this, but I'm pretty sure he can rip one of those monkeys in half if he catches it.
One, or even two monkeys won't usually attack or even threaten an adult male. Although, a monkey will easily beat an adult male human.
They are like 2-3.5 ft, and weigh at least 20 kg.
They are also sneaky. You will be bitten and scratched badly, and will be fighting for life.
One monkey cannot lift a human.
I have lived in a monkey infested area for decades, and I have never even heard of someone dying by monkey attack.
They also come in packs. They totally avoid directly messing with humans. But if some reason is given, then they can attack.
I think they cannot lift a full grown human being. Or kidnap one.
I think these injuries are from people getting on the roofs by themselves to save dogs, and falling due to bad control, panic, being attacked, or all.
Are you sure? That's on the big side for a human.
If they attack from behind they can easily knock down an adult human. They use this tactic to attack motorcycle delivery drivers quite often and steal food. They would have no trouble nabbing a child.
With bigger humans, they don't need to throw them. It may be enough to drive them strategically by screaming and biting in a big enough group and with an unprepared enough victim.