Macaque kills newborn in Malaysia

Saturday, October 9, 2010

A newborn baby girl in Malaysia has died after a macaque took her from her home, mauled her, and then dropped her off a rooftop.

According to reports, the young girl was asleep in the living room of her home when the monkey seized her, carried her to the rooftop, and bit her face and neck before discarding her.

After discovering the infant was missing, her family searched their home until they found her body outside the house.

	The baby died when it fell to the ground.
—Ishak Muhamad

State wildlife and national parks director Ishak Muhamad suggested that the macaque was probably scavenging for food and snatched the baby for this reason. Muhamad confirmed that the monkey responsible was tracked down and killed.

"The baby died when it fell to the ground. The monkey had apparently released the newborn, probably because it was alarmed by the parents' shouts", he stated.

Sources say the newborn died en route to hospital.

According to assistant wildlife official Mohd Zafifi Ramli, macaques in Malaysia are moving into urban areas due to population pressure and shrinking natural habitats, and because people in urban areas feed them.

Have an opinion on this story? Share it!

Sources

"Monkey kills baby in snatch attack in Malaysia" — Bangkok Post, October 7, 2010
"Baby in Malaysia dies after being snatched by monkey" — BBC News Online, October 7, 2010

Share this:

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.