Singapore – A monkey was caught on camera, strolling towards a supermarket, reaching for a bag of bread and quickly running away to enjoy his loot.
On Sunday (August 2), Facebook user Raven Qiu shared a video to Complaint Singapore’s page of a macaque grabbing a bag of bread from a supermarket. The presumably starving monkey looked unfazed as he approached the shelves with other shoppers within close vicinity. As if it knew exactly what it wanted, the macaque grabbed a bag of bread and made a run for it. An amused onlooker could be heard, commenting, “Wah so fast!”
The macaque took up a position near the middle of the pathway to enjoy its meal. As it was tearing off the plastic packaging, the individual recording the incident tried to get a closer view. This made the macaque climb a nearby tree to enjoy the bread without any distractions.
According to a comment by Facebook user Choon Lin Ng, the monkey was a regular non-paying customer of a Sheng Siong supermarket near Layar LRT station in Sengkang, as reported by singaporeink.net. The monkey had been visiting the store almost every day for the past six months, amassing an unpaid bill of S$300 worth of bread, shared one of the staff. Another staff member mentioned that their long-tailed customer would sometimes arrive twice a day, once around 9am and again at 5pm to claim its bag of bread.
NParks released an advisory on how to deal and co-exist with the creatures, noting an increase in interaction between wild monkeys and humans was due to urbanisation. It is advised to keep minimal contact with them and to remain calm, avoid eye contact and back off slowly if one does come close.
Meanwhile, members from the online community suggested planting fruit trees in the area just like in Tampines to promote natural foraging for the macaques. “Its habitat must not have been able to provide sufficient food that is why it resorts to look for food elsewhere,” noted Facebook user Love Sunshine. Another netizen mentioned Coney Island to be another spot where more fruit trees could be planted for the macaques in the area.
https://www.facebook.com/raven.qiu/videos/4482385658468256/