Photos have emerged from a Kaohsiung grocery store, showing a monkey climbing the shelves. Astonished shoppers hurried to record the simian visitor’s antics. But the store owners are used to it - they say they’ve seen this particular visitor multiple times before. Formosan rock macaques are a common sight in the rural communities of Kaohsiung. FTV spoke to local market sellers, and to an expert on the monkeys, to find out more.

When a customer spotted the scene they immediately snapped these photos. A macaque sits up on the top shelf of the store with a bag of bananas.

The monkey found its way into the grocery store in search of food. Onlookers were amused, but the store owners are more blasé.

Voice of Ms. Hung
Member of public
The store owner said the monkey has been in there three times. My mom said the monkey grabbed a bag of bananas and jumped on the shelf. She went and told the store attendant – if she hadn’t, nobody would have noticed.

Fruit sellers at nearby Neiwei內惟 Market say that monkey thieves are a common sight.

Fruit seller
I see them all the time. They’re very cheeky, they eat a bit and then chuckle at you. They always steal good fruit, they don’t pick it off the ground – they don’t eat fruit as bad as that.

Fruit seller
They’re all on the roof. When one wants to eat, it jumps down from the roof. We cover it with cloth in the morning, obviously, but they open it up and choose the things they want.

These fruit sellers have resigned themselves to visits from their furry friends. But this macaque expert says that it’s wrong to imagine they’re coming into town to look for a free lunch.

Lin Mei-yin
Taiwanese Macaque Coexistence Association
There isn’t really a great shortage of food for macaques. These are mostly male macaques, and when male macaques reach maturity, they want to disperse outward, migrate, to look for new communities to join, so that they can interchange their genes.

But whatever the monkeys are after, the public is reminded never to chase them away, nor to deliberately feed them. Approaching them is a quick route to getting injured.

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