‘Monkey business’: Four simians get up to mischief at Thiruvananthapuram Zoo, Kochi airport

Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 30 (IANS) Four monkeys got up to mischief at two different locations across Kerala on Monday. When three grey langurs escaped out of their cage at the Thiruvananthapuram Zoo, another monkey created a scare at the Kochi airport when it ran into the runway.

At the Zoo, three grey langurs were spotted on the trees at the huge and spacious compound.

Incidentally last year, two grey langurs, brought from Andhra Pradesh, had also gotten free and it was only after several days that the authorities managed to get them back into their cages.

Learning from the experience of last year, the zoo authorities this time adopted a different strategy. Soon after realising that three langurs had escaped, including one which had gone out last year also, authorities asked the staff not to do anything which would make these monkeys angry.

With this in mind, the zoo employees remained calm and cool and were seen bringing them food and water, which were placed at different places. But so far their attempts to coax and cajole these monkeys have not yielded results yet.

However, unlike last year, these monkeys continue to remain perched on the huge trees inside the zoo, whereas last time they escaped out of the zoo compound which scared the local population.

Meanwhile, the monkey at the Kochi International Airport was first spotted on the roof of the airport complex around noon. After it was spotted, staff and passengers tried to drive it away by making noise, it turned angry and was seen running up and down and later, it came before the main building. As the forest staff also arrived, the monkey was then seen on the runway giving the security staff and airport authorities a real hard time.

Of late across the state, monkeys have started to stray into towns and cities giving anxious time to the people and to authorities.

–IANS

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