MONKEY SERVANTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 August 1938, Page 7

MONKEY SERVANTS

COLLECTING PLANT SPECIMENS IN JUNGLE. ASSISTANCE TO BOTANISTS. “The first monkeys to join the Colonial Civil Service” is the description given to three berok monkeys which have been bought by the British Malayan Government to assist botanists in collecting jungle specimens. They are named Jambul (Fuzzyhaired), Puteh (White), and Merah (Red), states a message from Singapore, and although they cost .£3 each, they have already saved the botanical department 39 times their cost. The- berok monkey is Used by the Malays for gathering coconuts, but it has never before been used to collect botanical specimens. Mr E. J. H. Corner, the AssistantDirector of the Botanical Gardens in Singapore, who uses the monkeys, says that “A berok on the shoulder can be likened”, in effect, to a falcon on the wrist.” The wild monkeys are caught as soon as possible, and are so small that they will sit in the hand. They are trained gradually until they can climb the tallest trees and drop the coconuts from the crown. When Mr Corner was in Kelantan, one of the isolated East Coast Malay States, he found a young berok which had “'been educated just as a botanist might wish.” This monkey, with two others, was brought to Singapore, and after a few weeks’ training, learned to collect botanical specimens from high trees. The monkey Merah has served the botanists particularly well in collecting specimens from trees which had never been examined before. Unfortunately, Merah became ill after one climbing expedition, when it is believed he ate poison fruit, and in spite of the attentions of the doctors at the Medical College in Singapore, he died. In his short career he collected specimens from 300 different kinds, of trees. The secret of using the berok monkey is to know how to talk to him. Mr Corner talks to them in Malay. “Gi ata” (“Go up there”) the botanist says, and the monkey climbs the tree indicated. ' ' Should he climb along the wrong branch the monkey is told, “bukan itu, gi ata lagi” (“Not that one, go up further”) and when he reaches the right point, “belah itu” (“pull off that one”). The monkeys understan many phases, such as “bring more,” or “bite off that one,” and “come down.” If any of the botanical specimens thus collected have been caught in the branches of the tree, the monkey can be told, “Turun pelepas itu” (“On the way down, free that one”), and he will find his way to the branch and release the specimen. Puteh and Jambul have their homes in the Singapore botanical gardens, but they are kept from the wild monkeys as it is feared that if they mingled freely they would soon “go native” again and be useless for their jobs.