TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Thousands of long-tailed macaques - Macaca fascicularis - have invaded the village of Cikakak in Wangon District, Banyumas Regency, Central Java and raided the homes of residents for food since the beginning of the dry season. "They have begun to move towards our neighbouring villages, and there are thousands of them," said a resident of Cikaka, Kasmiyah on Tuesday, July 7, 2015.
The 50-year old resident is seriously bothered. Within a week, the macaques have managed to open her roof panels and broke in three times. The marauding monkeys then swooped in and raided the house for food - focusing mainly on condiments and marinades.
If left unguarded, the macaques are even brave enough to break through the front door of a house. "They have figured out how to open hooks to break into a house," said Kasmiyah.
Another resident, Turahman, said that the macaques do not only break into homes to steal food, as they also regularly destroy crops around the homes. "They usually wreck coconut crops to drink the sap," he said.
The macaques' behaviour are increasingly becoming unruly - their food is running short as their habitat near Perhutani's forest reserves are destroyed. "We are done dealing with these macaques - they steal our food, our crops, because the shoots they feed on are increasingly becoming harder to find," said Turahman.
Many residents - who collects coconut sap for a living - have to deal with the brunt of the macaques behaviour. Their profit plunges as the macaques descend on the plantations to drink the sap of the coconut trees, which they intended to process into palm sugar.
Another resident, Sulam, explained that some residents have come to accept the behaviour of the macaques. "We have to adjust our behaviour - for example, we need to be more cautious about where we store our food, because these macaques have become so accustomed to breaking into our homes," he said.
Cikakak's village chief, Suyitno said that the fodder that the Banyumas Regency administration supplies to fend of the macaques, are not enough and are intermittently distributed - which means that they have to accept that the macaques will continue to come and take their share of the crops.
For the time being, residents could do no more but to chase away the monkeys as they wander off into residential areas to search for food. They have also put up signs warning tourists - who comes to visit Cikakak's Macaque Reserves - to not feed he monkeys near the Saka Tunggal Mosque, which is located near the residents' homes.
ARIS ANDRIANTO