Fruit harvested by monkeys
Malaysia: School for macaques
For a small fee, people across the country send their macaques to the famed school, where they are put on thin chains like leashes, and trained to clamber up palm trees and pick coconuts.
Teaching monkeys to pick fruit has in the past sparked protests from animal rights groups, who have denounced it as cruel, but Grandfather Wan -real name Wan Ibrahim Wan Mat- insists he only ever treats his charges kindly. "They are like our children," said the 63-year-old. “ When they drop the fruits, we pet them."
According to thestar.com.my, Wan trains southern pig-tailed macaques, a medium-sized monkey found across much of Malaysia, as well as parts of Indonesia and southern Thailand. Wan Ibrahim first became interested in macaque training in his early 20s when he spotted the creatures climb up coconut palms to pick the fruit.
