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TWO years ago, a long-tailed macaque leapt through Jessica Chan's window and pinched her acne cream.
Rather than set a trap for 'Curious George', the Raffles Girls' School (Secondary) student and her schoolmates embarked on a mission to understand why people run into conflict with monkeys.
Their project, Monkey Business, started with a poll of park visitors' attitudes towards Singapore's 1,500 long-tailed macaques.
The conclusion was unsurprising: Many people viewed them as pests.
But what they learnt by working with Nanyang Technological University primate researcher Michael Gumert was surprising: For example, what people perceive as a snarl by a macaque is actually a 'grin' - of fear. Also, much of the human-macaque conflict can be prevented by not feeding the animals.
So the girls trained student volunteers to educate visitors about monkey behaviour, and sold T-shirts, postcards and pins to raise awareness and funds.
The project has been successful.
Team member Emily Loh said: 'Sometimes, we meet visitors whom we had talked to earlier, and it's very encouraging when they recognise us and tell us they have not been feeding or going too near the monkeys.'
Soon, 'do not feed the monkeys' signs in cartoon form designed by the girls will go up in parks, and an illustrated children's book they produced will be distributed to libraries and schools.
Last Saturday, the students manned a booth at a National Parks Board roadshow in Tampines, speaking to visitors about macaques.
Last year, besides funding from the National Youth Council and the Lee Foundation, the girls received $1,000 in an 'Animal Protectors Grant' from the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society, an animal welfare group.
The grant supports projects with a 'positive impact' on animal welfare here. Also among last year's eight grant recipients was a group which ran a cat sterilise-and-release programme in East Coast Park.
Anyone can apply for the grant, capped at $1,500 a project. The application deadline is July 31. Log on to www.animalwelfare.sg/grants.html
GRACE CHUA
This article was first published in The Straits Times.
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