The police are looking for a wild monkey that assaulted 10 people in Japan over the course of a fortnight. The attacks started on July 8 in the southwest of the nation’s Yamaguchi prefecture, in the Ogori area. In the most catastrophic incident, it broke into a residence and severely scratched a newborn. According to the Kyodo news agency, the monkey attacked nearby individuals last weekend after scratching a four-year-old girl’s leg and opening the screen door of a first-floor flat, leaving her with minor wounds.
The alleged 40–50 cm tall monkey apparently broke into a nearby kindergarten class and scratched a four-year-old girl. Police in the area is allegedly on high alert. People have been told not to leave their windows open, and traps have been erected for the animal. Although leaflets warning locals to be on the lookout have been issued by the mayor’s office, the animal was still at large as of Tuesday. About 40 monkey sightings have been reported in the region since May, according to the national broadcaster NHK.
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They are not the only wild animals that have made Japanese citizens more watchful. Bear sightings and assaults have increased recently around the nation, along with fewer incidents involving wild boar, such as the one last year in which two of the animals harmed 12 people in a park in Hiroshima before being shot dead. Because there aren’t enough acorns in the bears’ natural habitat, they have to venture into populated areas in quest of food, which has led to an increase in bear sightings and assaults. The degradation of abandoned farmland that once served as a natural barrier between their habitat and human areas is another issue in depopulated rural areas.
(with inputs from agencies)
