For two anxious weeks, a rogue monkey kept residents of an Indonesian town on edge — until trappers finally caught the animal after a string of sudden attacks that even forced dozens of schools to close.
Animal trappers in Indonesia have captured an adult long-tailed macaque that had been randomly attacking people in Tembilahan on Sumatra Island. The monkey wounded 18 residents, biting and clawing at victims, most of whom were targeted when they were alone.
Children and elderly people were among those injured.
“As of today, there were 19 attacks, with 18 victims. One victim was attacked twice,” Tembilahan fire and rescue service head Junaidy Ismail told AFP.
Some of the injured needed more than a dozen stitches and rabies shots.
The rescue service said the macaque was captured late yesterday in a trap set in town, and it released a video showing the animal alive and seemingly stressed, behind bars in a cage.
Even with the capture, officials cautioned that the threat might not be over. Town official Ari Syuria urged residents to stay alert, raising the possibility the animal had not been acting alone.
“The concern is that there may be other monkeys attacking people,” Ari said in an Instagram post.
Forty schools remained closed today, and local authorities ordered three days of online learning for hundreds of Tembilahan pupils.
Schools will reopen next Monday if conditions are considered safe, the local government said in a statement.
The monkey has been moved to Pekanbaru, the capital of Sumatra’s Riau province, where the nature conservation agency will conduct blood and observational tests.
“We want to establish whether the monkey is carrying any diseases,” agency official Ujang Holisudin told AFP.
Human-animal conflict is a recurring challenge across the sprawling Southeast Asian archipelago, particularly in places where rainforest clearing for palm oil plantations reduces habitat for wildlife including monkeys, elephants and tigers.
