Macaques playing at Ao Nang beach, Krabi, Thailand

The monkeys at the end of Ao Nang beach are really comical. They are long tailed macaques and compared to those at Batu Caves in Malaysia, they are far less aggressive. The ones at Batu Caves will grab anything being carried by visitors in the hope that it will be edible. They have stolen valuables such as passports and wallets and handbags and became a real nusiance. They used intimiation techniques to scare the visitors to drop whatever they are carrying.
The monkeys at Ao Nang are very different. They don't seem to bother too much about the visitors. OK they check them out to see if anyone is obviously holding food, but they make no attempt to grab anything. And they seem to understand that cameras are not food, even when the humans point the cameras just inches from the monkey.

There is a notice by the shrine asking visitors not to feed the monkeys here. A man from the Last Cafe keeps a watch and when too many monkeys congregate in this area, he sends them back using a catapult. It's not done to harm the monkeys, just chase them away. But it only lasts a minute and then they come back.

The monkeys make good use of the tree branch to cross the small section of stream to get onto the beach.

 Sometimes there were so many leaping from the beach onto the branch that they were double parked on the branch!

Others don't mind getting wet and will happily drop into the water from the high branches and then swim across. They are good swimmers, doing a doggy paddle.
Many were happily playing in the water and some were really competent at swimming underwater. But there were some who preferred not to get wet.

© Liz Price
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