Monkeys Terrorize Japanese Resort Town
By Kevin Sullivan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, February 1, 1998; Page A26
TOKYO—A pack of wild monkeys terrorized a seaside resort
town south
of Tokyo last week, attacking 30 people and sending eight of
them to the
hospital with bites.
The victims, mostly women, were attacked from behind, often
in their own
homes, by monkeys who bit them on the ankles, calves and
backs. One
woman, 62, was bitten as she vacuumed her living room;
another was
jumped on the street and pushed to the ground.
"I have lived for 77 years," she said. "And this is the
first time I've been
attacked by a monkey."
Officials in the town of Ito, on the lovely Izu peninsula,
have no idea why
the usually peaceful monkeys came down from the mountains.
They
speculate that an unusually snowy winter has made it hard
for them to find
food, forcing them into town to scavenge.
But that doesn't explain the bad attitude, or why 26 of the
30 victims have
been women between the ages of 40 and 80. At least five
monkeys, each
standing as high as three feet, have been spotted tangled in
people's
laundry or going for the ceremonial fruit on the Buddhist
altars many
people have.
The town is fighting back. At one school, a "monkey patrol"
is guarding the
building with long sticks to swat away any monkeys that come
near the
children.
Loudspeakers, which normally warn townspeople in the event
of
earthquakes, are now broadcasting this message: "Monkeys are
on the
loose. If you go out, lock your door. Be cautious. Do not
give them food."
The monkeys have shown a remarkable aptitude for opening
unlocked
doors and entering homes.
"I don't want to talk about it," said Fukuyo Inaba, who was
vacuuming
when a monkey sneaked up and bit her on the ankle. She said
she felt the
pain and saw what she thought was a dog running out the
door.
She pulled the sliding door shut and returned to work, only
to be
confronted again. This time, she saw that her attacker was a
monkey and
that it had managed to pull the sliding door open again.
When she shouted
and began banging on a chair, the monkey retreated.