Top 10 Times A Monkey Took A Human Life

For most people, monkeys are adorable little primates who wouldn’t hurt a fly. For anyone who has worked with monkeys, or been exposed to them in the wild, they are dangerous and terrifying little monsters capable of killing people.

They may be small, but monkeys have caused a lot of deaths over the years, and in places like India, they take people’s lives all the time. Monkey attacks are no joke, and these ten examples are some of these furry little primates’ worst.

10 A Man Was Stoned To Death By Monkeys In India

In October 2018, a man named Dharampal Singh was out collecting pieces of dry wood in Tikri, Uttar Pradesh, India, when something unusual happened. He was pelted from above with bricks, and they were thrown by a group of monkeys in the trees above him. Mr. Singh was pelted with bricks, the monkeys collected from nearby dilapidated buildings, and he was hit in the legs, chest, and head. According to his brother, “Monkeys threw more than 20 bricks at Dharampal on Thursday.” Because the bricks were thrown from high above, Mr. Singh didn’t stand a chance.

The 72-year-old man was killed by the attacking rogue monkeys, and as a result, his family filed a complaint with the officers at Doghat police station in Uttar Pradesh. The police didn’t take the complaint seriously, and even went on record saying, “How can we register the case against monkeys? This will make us a laughing stock.”^[1] Monkeys are well-known in the village to be aggressive towards the people living there, and multiple complaints have been filed. Unfortunately, bringing them in for justice is next to impossible, so the monkeys continue to terrorize the locals.^[2]

9 Monkeys Chased A Woman Off A Roof In India

In January 2020, a 45-year-old woman named Jayanti Swain was working on her roof, hanging clothes to dry when a monkey appeared on her roof, frightening her. Ms. Swain panicked and screamed as she attempted to get away from the furry beast, but this led her to run right off the roof, causing her to fall to her death. She was later found by her family members on the ground after they rushed outside to see what all the shrieking was about. When she was taken to the hospital, she was declared deceased

The unfortunate encounter happened in the Jajpur district of Odisha on the Eastern coast of India, and it’s not the first time the area has had to deal with monkey violence. Villagers have reported numerous attacks and annoyances caused by the local monkey population, which has destroyed crops and attacked people. Most attacks don’t result in human fatalities, but that does occur elsewhere in India, where police have taken to using slingshots to try and frighten packs of monkeys away from people in Northern India. Sterilization programs have also been employed in an attempt to curb the growing monkey population.^[3]

8 A Pet Monkey Mauled And Killed Its Owner In Malaysia

In some parts of the world, monkeys are used to retrieve coconuts, as they are incredibly adept at scaling trees and throwing coconuts to the ground. A monkey can do the work of ten men in this regard, so it’s no surprise that someone like Ngah Muhammad might try to train his pet monkey to fetch coconuts in his native Malaysia. The training didn’t go according to plan, and instead of shimmying up the tree to fetch a coconut, the pet monkey attacked its owner, biting him in several places, including the wrist.

Unfortunately, that bite to the wrist proved fatal, as it tore through a major artery, leading the 72-year-old man to bleed to death. His son, Mohd Zakaria Ngah, ran out to the coconut grove to check on his father, whom he found lying unconscious on the ground. When he approached his father, the monkey attacked him as well and bit him hard on the neck. His scream following the bite caused neighbors to arrive, and the monkey was scared off into the jungle. The Malaysian Department of Wildlife and National Parks found and tranquilized the monkey, which they likely destroyed due to its aggressive behavior.^[4]

7 A Monkey Went On A Nine-Day Rampage, Killing One And Injuring Nine In India

In May of 2019, a monkey went on a rampage in a central Indian village, resulting in the death of one man and injuries to nine additional people. The rampage lasted for nine days as villagers were suddenly attacked by the rogue monkey, which bit whomever it came in contact with. The first victim was a 15-year-old boy who was bitten by the monkey but wasn’t killed in the attack. The man who died as a result of the monkey’s bite was 60-years-old and is only known as Nathuram.^[5]

The attacks led the locals to protest, as wild monkey attacks are nothing new to the people of central India. The protest took the form of a blockade along a motorway, where they placed Nathuram’s body, resulting in a major traffic jam. The Times of India reported that the local hospitals weren’t stocked with anti-rabies vaccinations, which was the straw that broke the camel’s back for the residents. Following their protest along the major road, the police promised to address their concern, which helped to resolve the protest. A team managed to locate the monkey in three hours following the last attack.^[6]

6 Monkeys Killed The Deputy Mayor Of New Dehli, India

Typically, when a rogue monkey goes on the offensive in India, it happens in a small village, where the people there have little to no protection. In the case of Surinder Singh Bajwa, a senior government official who was the Deputy Mayor of New Dehli, his run-in with rogue Rhesus macaques led to his death, and it happened in his own home. The Deputy Mayor was on his balcony reading a newspaper at his home in East Dehli when a group of three or four monkeys suddenly attacked him. According to one of his neighbors, “The monkeys came all of a sudden. Bajwaji attempted to shoo them away and, in the process, fell off the terrace.”

Bajwa was rushed to the hospital to treat his head injury sustained in the fall, but he succumbed to his injuries and died in October 2007. There are numerous government buildings in New Dehli that are constantly overrun with Rhesus macaques, so the problem isn’t strictly limited to faraway villages. They typically frighten visitors and passers-by but rarely attack. Authorities have sent larger and fiercer monkeys called langurs to chase off the Rhesus macaques, but the problem persists.^[7][8]

5 A Child Was Snatched And Killed By A Monkey In India

Monkey attacks in India aren’t as rare as the residents would like, but they rarely result in death, and when they do, it’s often an elderly person who dies from a bite or thrown item. Sadly, in November 2018, a 12-day-old baby named Arush was the victim of a monkey attack, and it happened when his mother was breastfeeding him. Without warning, a pack of wild monkeys ambushed the family home on the outskirts of Agra, India, where a monkey grabbed the baby from his mother’s arms. The monkey grabbed the child by the neck and pulled him away before his mother realized what was happening.

Yogesh, the child’s father, explained to local media that “The front door was left open, and my wife was breastfeeding the baby when a monkey suddenly ran into the house.” The parents frantically searched for their infant and sadly found him on a neighbor’s roof, where the monkey had left him. The child was bleeding and unresponsive, so the parents rushed him to a hospital, where he was declared dead. It was later discovered that the same monkey attacked a sleeping 14-year-old girl 15 minutes prior to attacking Arush.^[9]

4 A Woman Was Bitten To Death In India

Just five days after baby Arush was killed by a monkey, a 58-year-old woman named Bhoomi Devi suffered a similar fate in the city of Agra. Bhoomi had left her home to relieve herself when she was attacked by monkeys. When she was found, she was covered with blood from multiple bites, and according to members of her family, “She had lost so much blood that doctors could do nothing to save her.” The death, which came so soon after the infant’s caused locals to hold marches and a meeting, where they insisted that monkeys be removed from the list of protected species under the Wildlife Act of 1972.

There are an estimated 25,000 wild monkeys in the city, and while they are most often a nuisance, the rise in attacks and the aggressive behavior has led to too many deaths, the people are demanding action. At the meeting, they passed a resolution demanding compensation to the victims of monkey attacks, which they say “have become so frequent that women and children are reluctant to move around freely.” Relocation and sterilization efforts were launched in an attempt to deal with the growing problem.^[10]

3 An Alcoholic Monkey Went On A Rampage In India

A monkey named Kalua was raised by an “occultist” from Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh, India, and for some reason, the monkey was raised on a healthy diet of alcohol. It’s believed that Kalua was taught to drink hard liquor, and was fed monkey meat, which made for a crazed alcoholic monkey. Authorities found the monkey’s owner dead, which likely led to severe withdrawal, as Kalua could no longer drink as he was accustomed to. This led to a period of hyper aggression, and the monkey took to the streets, where he attacked 250 people.

Kalua preferred to attack the faces of women and children, and he fled into the forests of Mirzapur, where it took a while for authorities to trap him. Once he was taken to the Kanpur Zoological Park, the zookeepers worked with him in an attempt to rehabilitate the monkey, but all efforts failed. He would only eat meat and refused all fruit and vegetables. Ultimately, he was transferred away from others of his kind, and placed in solitary confinement, where he will remain for the rest of his life.^[11][12]

2 A Senior Chinese Businessman Was Killed By A Monkey In China

In April 2016, Weng Mai, the former chairman of the Shanghai-based food company, Guan Sheng Yuan Co. Ltd. became the victim of a monkey attack at the nature park on Yuntai Mountain in Henan, China. The 67-year-old businessman was visiting the nature reserve as part of a photoshoot arranged by the Shanghai Yelv Travel Agency. While there, a Macaque monkey either threw or pushed a rock over a ledge, causing it to fall on Weng’s head. He was immediately rushed to the Xiuwu County People’s Hospital for treatment.

Unfortunately, the wound was too severe, and he died as a result of the trauma to his head. The incident raised awareness of the dangers monkeys can pose to visitors to the park, and despite the travel agency’s assurance that the death was the result of an accident, and wasn’t the monkey’s fault, an investigation nonetheless followed. The area is known to be a dangerous sport where falling rocks are concerned. In 2015, seven tourists were killed when a large boulder fell on them at Caidie Mountain in Guilin, though it wasn’t pushed by a monkey, as was the case for Mr. Weng.^[13]

1 A Monkey Killed A King In Greece

In 1920, the 27-year-old King of Greece, Alexander, was the victim of a monkey attack. The incident took place on the 2nd of October, 1919, when King Alexander went for a walk with his dog in his private park at the Tatoi Estate outside Athens. When a monkey attacked His Majesty’s dog, Fritz, the King ran to his dog’s aid. The monkey was a Barbary macaque and belonged to someone who worked at the palace. While King Alexander was trying to pry the two animals apart, another monkey came up from behind and bit the King on his leg and upper body.

The King had his wounds dressed, and he felt that he wasn’t seriously injured, so he kept the incident from the public. Unfortunately, both bites became infected, and while amputation of the leg may have saved him, none of the doctors were willing to risk the King’s leg should it not work. Eventually, the King died 23 days after he was first bitten. His death led to his father’s resumption of his Kingly duties, which had numerous unforeseen consequences, including losing the Greco-Turkish War. Winston Churchill laid some serious blame on the Barbary macaque, when he said, “it was a monkey bite that caused the death of those 250,000 people.”^[14]