Live data from Hacker News

Group of monkeys kill over 250 dogs for 'revenge' in Indian town

newsweek.com

311–320 of 323 posts

Re: Group of monkeys kill over 250 dogs for 'revenge' in Indian town

#311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand but aren't we to be blame for this? We took their home, we took their shelter and what can they do? And they don't have enough wisdom to know who they should harm and who they shouldn't. And many of monkey i know here are too friendly but yea after they starts to live with humans they learn to hoodwink people because many thieves are known to use monkey to snatch valuables from tourist by providing banan…

There have been articles, probably also threads on HN, about monkeys enslaved and used to harvest crops or something. I don't remember all the details, but they pull out their teeth so they can't bite, and coerce them into working much faster than humans could.

Sounds pretty gruesome. However, the concept of it seems to be ancient. The great Indian epic of Ramayana has a part that tells how they build Adam's / Rama's bridge to Sri Lanka with the "help" of monkeys:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Monkeys_and_Bears_Bui...

Re: Group of monkeys kill over 250 dogs for 'revenge' in Indian town

#312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably yes. I think both are pretty bad. I eat pretty much vegetarian for this reason (not entirely because here in Spain it's impossible to be totally vegetarian especially when you go out for dinner)

Curious where in Spain you are. I'm vegan and was looking at spending some time in Spain (mainly Granada at one point because of low cost of living, location, and availability of vegan food). In the bigger cities, Happycow shows hundreds of fully vegan and vegetarian restaurants. As of yet I haven't actually been to Spain, but from traveling around Europe I did learn that eating vegan can (sometimes) be incredibly ch…

I'm in Barcelona.

There are many vegetarian and vegan restaurants, yes. But when I go out for dinner with my Spanish friends they wouldn't pick those places. They'd always go for traditional places.

Which means you end up with exactly the kind of thing you mention "Uhhh yeah we might have a salad for you" :D

I'm not strictly vegetarian so it's not so much a problem but I had a colleague who used to come with us for lunch who got fed up with that.

But as a tourist you'l be fine yeah.

I'm from the Netherlands myself and the supermarkets there have a huge range of vegetarian and vegan foods. Here it's usually a corner of one of the fridges.

Re: Group of monkeys kill over 250 dogs for 'revenge' in Indian town

#313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"roughed up" sounds like getting a beating. but I'd assume they rip your face off and stuff. care to elaborate?

Yes they will scratch/bite you a lot. But they'll leave you after a while. They're not extremely violent like predators eating us. They only retaliate

so they don't rip your face off - understood

Re: Group of monkeys kill over 250 dogs for 'revenge' in Indian town

#314
post #185

Even if you fight, you cannot win.

I'm confident humans will always win against monkeys. It's just not worth the effort at first. But when the situation escalates, like it seems to be when infants are at risk, those monkeys will eventually be captured or killed off.

Re: Group of monkeys kill over 250 dogs for 'revenge' in Indian town

#315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We both are stronger and have more stamina than macaques. The biggest male adult macaques are 18kg. That’s probably more that the average adult can raise with one arm but not by much and I insist on average. That’s nothing exceptional for someone in shape. Considering the weight and power in a human leg, a swift kick would seriously harm and probably kill an average macaque. The issue is not strength here.

The average adult can't lift 18kg with one arm, even with improper posture? That's pretty sad if true.

More than half adults are women, a third live in Asian when the average weight of an adult is 58kg. You have strong bias.

Re: Group of monkeys kill over 250 dogs for 'revenge' in Indian town

#316

> villagers began attempting to rescue the dogs on their own. But some of them have found themselves subject to the monkeys' retaliation, and some have even injured themselves or fallen from buildings how strong are these monkeys? I mean I know monkeys are strong but can they really ambush a human, and push them over a ledge? can they kidnap a human, carry them upward and drop them over a ledge?

All wild animals are stronger than they look. Humans are comparatively weak.. most of us can’t fight a deer. Monkeys are intelligent. They are aware of leverage and potential danger. They jump on people, chase, scratch and bite them

You hear that said but if you look at human prehistory whenever we encountered large animals they got wiped out and are mostly have to be preserved these days by conservation laws.

Re: Group of monkeys kill over 250 dogs for 'revenge' in Indian town

#317
post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These monkeys are not fatally dangerous if that's what GP is saying. But they cause heavy and serious nuisance. Where I live, these monkeys invade gradens, agricultural fields, house rooftops at least 4-5 times a month. The locals drop anything they do, and chase away these monkeys. When chased by an adult male human, these monkeys don't fight back and are easily frightened. They don't mess with adult males or groups…

> An adult male cannot physically take on a monkey. It is impossible. Still they don't attack. Are you positive? A chimpanzee: yes. A guerilla: indubitable. But a monkey? They seem like medium-sized dogs, that can move around quicker and more freely. They'll bite out your flesh, and perhaps maim you to a semi-serious degree (including infection), but I cannot fathom a monkey seriously killing a grown adult male human…

Monkey bite your face off

Re: Group of monkeys kill over 250 dogs for 'revenge' in Indian town

#318
post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you say "probably"? Do we have any evidence on which to base our presumptions of the inner experiences of monkeys?

The extremely similar brain structure of all mammals?

But then wouldn't the similar brain structure between monkeys and humans point towards monkeys' qualitative experience being more similar than humans than the other way around?

I'm not trying to argue one way or the other, but a matter such as this seems plagued by uncertainty and it seems rash to me to be making such presumptions.

Re: Group of monkeys kill over 250 dogs for 'revenge' in Indian town

#319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's all well and good until 5 of them jump on you and sink 2 inch canine teeth in you...

I feel after the first few bites, you'd be running on adrenaline. At that point, I believe it's apt to start elbow-dropping, curb-stomping, and punting monkeys. If for some unknown reason, 5 monkeys ambushed me on a regular walk, I'm confident I could throw enough of a fuss that'd dissuade them from trying to steal my lunch. Now 10 monkeys? I don't know. That's a lot of monkeys. I don't think I'm ever going to encoun…

I would agree that you could dissuade a few monkeys from taking your sandwich. Animals don't particularly want to fight: even a "victory" could end badly if you live in a world without antibiotics, splints, or indeed any medical care.

On the other hand, if you backed five desperate monkeys into corner so that they think they are fighting for their lives, I think you'd fare much worse. I'd bet "punt attempts" sometimes end with the monkey clinging to your leg instead, chomping away at whatever they can reach (and even the molars can do some damage given the tremendous bite force).

Re: Group of monkeys kill over 250 dogs for 'revenge' in Indian town

#320
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HG Wells speculates about this in The Time Machine. The futuristic humans lost their revenge instinct and are helpless against their subterranean tormenters.

I don't remember the loss of the "revenge instinct" being a part of that book. The future humans had optimized for comfort/happiness so much that they evolved to be more and more docile and childlike. They lost their intelligence and evolved into stupid beasts again because they had no evolutionary pressure to become anything else. They didn't lose their self-preservatory instinct -- they just lost the only defensive…

New Zealand has/had plenty of predators, they were just all avian [0], [1], which hunt by sight, and during the day [2]. Existing/nesting on the ground with good visual camouflage is a adaptation to avoid avian predators. Obviously it doesn't work that well against mammalian predators.

- [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_falcon - [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haast%27s_eagle - [2] exception here being the Ruru (an Owl)

Post reply on HN