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A nine-year-old boy in Fukuoka was attacked by a wild monkey that apparently wanted his bento, police said Sunday.
According to police, a wild monkey has been seen in Sawara and Jonan wards a number of times over the past week. On Saturday, at around 3 p.m., the monkey scratched the boy’s knees, causing a light injury, Livedoor News reported.
The boy had been eating a bento in a nearby park and was on his way home when the monkey attacked him, apparently trying to get the bento box in his hand.
© Japan Today
16 Comments
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Mirai Hayashi
Monkeys are smart. They know who's carry food, and who to target. They tend to target young women and little kids because they are easier to overpower.
Also, this is exactly why you shouldn't feed wild animals. They become aggressive when they know that they can get food from people.
Disillusioned
Monkeys are wild animals and they are also very bold and clever. This combination makes them extremely dangerous and not just the Japanese monkeys. Sadly, too many people treat them as cute and cuddly animals, which lessens their fear of humans resulting in these kinds of interactions resulting in injury. I'm glad this kid was only slightly injured. It could have quite easily been a lot worse.
nath
More monkey business in Japan! Good that the boy was not hurt too badly.
Stephan Lawarie
indeed letsberealistic, it's the human contact that made them like that, feeding them looks fun, but in the end they will become more bold and will attack people for food, the same happen in South Africa with baboons......
Wakarimasen
Monkeys are cute.
Equality
No doubt they would have made off to the local yaoya-san to buy some bananas!
FightingViking
It happened to me once (many years ago) at a "monkey park" but they had guards there who immediately put antiseptic on the scratches.
stormcrow
The monkeys here in Japan are quite intelligent. One housewife told me about how she was approached by one monkey, then another appeared and then another. Suddenly she found herself completely surrounded by a group of monkeys and they began to slowly approach and close the circle around her and she froze, which the monkeys had probably anticipated from a woman. Her husband then saw what was happening and came running and shouting and scared the monkeys away. She was holding a purse at the time and that was what the monkeys were interested in.
Wc626
My 3 favorite japanese monkeys hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. I'm glad the lil' boy only got his knees scratched.
Fadamor
Animals that have attacked humans here where I live are hunted, captured, and (if a mammal) tested for rabies. If the animal cannot be captured and tested, then the victim has to go through the rabies treatment as a precaution.
Strategist
There's a big difference between human and a animals, the animal, (the monkey in this instance) can not contemplate the consequence of its actions, it simply sees something it wanted and made a attack to get it. More control is needed over free roaming wild animals in built up areas.
Kenneth Gardner
You scratch my knees, and I'll scratch yours...
Monozuki
Chances were that the boy had presumably finished eating his boxed lunch, if there was some leftovers, when the monky attacked him. It was good for him that he had eaten up his bento and escaped with minor injuries.
kiyoshiMukai
Rabies treatment is too long. Like 10 weeks of vaccination
Christopher Glen
Have the police been sent to make an arrest? The primate must be apprehended with all due speed, and made to confess its crimes