India's Delhi Metro has hired a posse of tough primates (with a wrangler) to scare away ubiquitous troublemaking local monkeys. Lately, the misbehavers have been getting on trains and hassling passengers. This sounds silly if you haven't been to this part of the world, but monkeys really do get around there. And they look cute enough in a 640×480 jpeg. But up close, they can be nasty.
In an effort to keep monkeys out of the New Delhi subways, authorities have called in one of the few animals known to scare the creatures – a fierce-looking primate called the langur, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported Wednesday. The decision to hire a langurwallah – a man who trains and controls the langurs – came after a monkey got into a metro car June 9, the newspaper reported.
In that incident, a monkey boarded a train at the underground Chawri Bazaar station and reportedly scared passengers by scowling at them for three stops. It then disembarked at Civil Lines station. Passengers had to be moved to another car while staff chased the dexterous creature, causing delays.
Link. Above: here are a couple of lingering langurs in Sri Lanka. This is the same sort of creature Delhi Metro officials will hire to shoo off local scowler monkeys. (thanks, ian)
