Monkey mafia in Bali bartering stolen items for food
Singapore: Monkeys outside an Indonesian temple are running a ransom racket on visiting tourists by stealing valuables such as glasses, hats, cameras or even cash to exchange them for food, researchers have found.
The macaques grab valuable items and then wait for tourists and staff to offer them food before dropping their ill-gotten gains and dashing off with the prize. “It is a unique behaviour. The Uluwatu Temple is the only place in Bali where it is found, which suggests it is learned rather than being an innate ability,” said Fany Brotcorne, a primatologist at the University of Liege in Belgium. Researchers spent months observing four different groups of the monkeys that live near the temple.
The two groups that spent the most time around tourists had the highest rates of robbery and bartering, supporting the idea that they were learning the behaviour by watching each other, researchers said. They found that groups with more young males, who are more prone to risky behaviour, also had higher rates than other groups, ‘New Scientist’ reported.
Although the study is based on a small sample, Brotcorne believes it provides the first evidence that the behaviour is cultural, transmitted across generations as monkeys learn from each other. “Bartering and trading skills are usually defined as exclusive to humans. Seeing them in macaques could help us learn how early the behaviour might have arisen in the human lineage,” Brotcorne said. (PTI)
Hijab-clad schoolgirls forced to leave expo
Melbourne: Hijab-clad Muslim school students were allegedly forced to leave a career expo in Australia after onlookers felt threatened by their “attire” in the wake of the Manchester suicide bombing.
The schoolgirls were attending the career expo at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre (PCEC) last week, just days after the suicide bombing in Manchester that left 22 dead and dozens injured.
Some people complained that the school children’s hijabs were “making them feel uncomfortable after what happened in Manchester” and asked staff to have them removed from the venue, WA Today reported.
The PCEC confirmed the centre was contacted about an alleged incident involving discrimination against patrons on May 26 but denied that their staff were involved.
A mother of one of the students was quoted as saying that her 16-year-old daughter was at the Careers Expo at the Convention Centre last week when she and her school friends were told by their teacher that they had to pack up their lunch and leave. “I’m not angry, I’m just sad,” the mother of the student was quoted as saying by the daily.
“I feel particularly sad that my daughter went on an excursion and didn’t enjoy it. I see this as an opportunity to raise awareness and get a deeper understanding of how young Muslims in Australia feel,” she said.
“For starters, how can people think what the students are wearing has anything to do what happens elsewhere?” she added. Islamophobia Register Australia President, Mariam Veiszadeh, said she was “very disappointed to hear about the incident.”
“Time and time again, we come across examples of ignorant prejudice in which every day people conflate the faith of 1.6 plus billion Muslims worldwide with that of the murderous acts of a group who hold themselves out to be Muslims,” Veiszadeh said.
“Women often bear the brunt of Islamophobia and a rather alarming number of incidents take place in the presence of children,” she said. A spokesperson for PCEC said the centre did not condone discrimination of any kind. (PTI)
