EDITOR – With all the hype about monkeys and mynah birds, we need to understand that monkeys are decimating our wild bird population.
Humans have taken over the animals’ range and the big five and other predators have been exterminated.
Two hundred years ago, our region abounded with leopards, lions, caracal, pythons, eagles to name a few. Their presence kept the monkey population under control as monkeys were part of their natural prey. Consequently today we have too many monkeys.
Monkeys raid birds’ nests, eating their eggs and chicks. Bird lovers at our bird park and region will vouch to seeing that. I have observed that some of our bird species have disappeared from the urban areas over the last decade.
A solution would be for nature conservation to get involved and have a sterilisation programme on our monkey colonies, to return the balance to normal. This has been done on elephant and lion populations in our national parks and most humans practise birth control.
BRUCE MUNRO
