10 Things You Didn't know about MONKEY FOREST

Monkey Forest, Ubud Bali

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10. What is it?
Monkey forest is an open forest connected to the small city of Ubud, Bali. This forest is in no way a zoo, there is no netting, cages, or anything like that, the Balinese long-tailed monkeys live near the river in this part of Bali out of habit by being fed by park staff.

9. The Monkeys
There are roughly around 600 monkeys that live in the forest. In 2011, 39 adult males, 38 adult females, 243 juveniles, and 91 infants were counted. The smaller the monkey the less aggressive and dangerous they can be. It’s easy to identify them, the infants will be holding onto the mother’s stomach, the juveniles will be running around playing and the adults can be identified shearly on size.

8. Diet and feeding
The majority of the Balinese long-tailed monkeys diet comes from sweet potato, which is fed by the park staff but bananas are for sale all over the park. One thing to note though, once you have bananas in your hand you become a target by all the monkeys. Park staff set up feeding stations throughout the park aswell that has papaya leaf, corn, cucumber, coconut and other fruit.

7. Territory
There are 5 different monkey groups that occupy the forest. One near the main temple, 2nd one at the park’s Michelin area, 3rd is the eastern parts, 4th is the central area and 5th is by the cremation and cemetery. As the monkey population increases so does the aggression between these groups. The land size they live in isn’t getting any bigger so this is bound to happen, and monkeys will fight over territory when they’re awake which is during the day for everyone to see.

6. Monkey Theft
The monkeys of monkey forest will steal possessions right off your body. It is advised when you go into the monkey forest that you don’t have anything on your body. The monkeys will steal sunglasses, wallets right out of your pocket, earrings, rings, necklaces, watches and even a handkerchief.

5. Nature
The park is full of lush forest, spectacular trees, a river walkway, cemetery and temples. There are a few temples you can take a peek at although, the doors are closed to go inside you can still snap some good pictures. While a little sad to look at there is a monkey cemetary for all the deceased monkeys of the forest.

4. Monkey Behavior
This brings us to the next point of behavior. The younger the monkey the less threatening he or she will be. The older monkeys do provide some element of danger. It is stated on park rules to not look them in the eyes or you are challenging them, you should also just be calm don’t make loud noises and move around calmly and predictably. This woman had her handkerchief stole and started started making a big commotion about it. A large male monkey too this as a challenge and jumped on her and chomped down right into her shoulder. These monkeys do carry Hepatitis B which can cause death in humans so always keep your cool in monkey forest.

3. Playtime
In certain parts of the forest you’ll experience the youngsters constantly chasing each other. For some reason they really enjoy the higher elevation stairwell leading away from the river. What is particularly entertaining about this is for some reason all this playing and chasing seems to piss off the adult males. They’ll constantly try to catch them but are just too slow.

2. Daily Activities
The monkeys daily activities will be on display as they sleep at night and are awake during the day, which is great for tourists. This includes, mating, fighting like these 2 disgruntled monkeys, grooming like these ones here and if you’re really lucky you’ll be able to get close to see a mother nursing her baby.

1. Feeding Them
They’ll feed right on your head and shoulders. The monkeys will only climb you if you have food, so if you don’t want a monkey on you don’t buy food. When they choose a banana from you they’ll often jump up onto your shoulder or head to eat as it’s much more stable for them. You can continue to walk around the park with the monkey on your head and if you keep feeding them bananas they won’t go anywhere. It’s not uncommon for them to hold onto you and rest after eating as well.

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Intro music thanks to Machinmasound:
Rallying the Defense:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruPk4RD19Nw