Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated cities in the world.
Living right next to the 7.76 million people, there are their primate cousins, 1,800 monkeys, divided into about 30 troops, which are mainly found in Golden Hill, Lion Rock, and Shing Mun Country Parks. Different species include Rhesus Macaque, Long-tailed Macaque, and their hybrids.
However, Hong Kong's indigenous rhesus macaques were last seen in the 1950s. The current colonies are descendants of imported monkeys in 1910 and released near Kowloon reservoir to eat plants that were poisonous to humans. The population of monkeys increased dramatically, due to human feeding. A ban on the public feeding of the monkeys was introduced to control the growing population in 1999. Began in 2002, the sterilization program for monkeys has brought the birth rate to below 30%, with the population decreased from 2,300 to 1,800.
66 registered feeders took the volunteer job in the same year as the feeding ban came into effect, but due to old age or economic status, only 6 remained in 2016.
Authorities was said to plant 200,000 fruit trees in the habitats in the early 2000s, in order to increase the monkeys' dependency on natural food sources. Nonetheless, no records of how many of the fruit trees have grown to bear fruits, and how much food can they supply for the monkeys.
With the decreased number of registered feeders year by year, and lack of wild resources during the lean time, some troops roamed out of country parks to urban area in search of food, causing nuisances.
(Source: AFCD records)
References
Basler, B. (1991, September 2). Hong Kong Journal; Monkey Hill’s Swinging Crowd Jars the Neighbors. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/02/world/hong-kong-journal-monkey-hill-s-swinging-crowd-jars-the-neighbors.html
Kam Shan. (n.d.). AFCD. https://www.afcd.gov.hk/english/country/couvis/couviscou/couviscouks/couviscou_ks.html
The Feeding Ban. (n.d.). AFCD. https://www.afcd.gov.hk/english/conservation/confau/confaumon/confaumonthe/confaumon_the.html
余, 睿菁. (2016, February 6). 【猴年到】全港僅餘六個餵猴人 守護馬騮山上的猴兒. HK01. https://www.hk01.com/%E7%AA%81%E7%99%BC/6059/%E7%8C%B4%E5%B9%B4%E5%88%B0-%E5%85%A8%E6%B8%AF%E5%83%85%E9%A4%98%E5%85%AD%E5%80%8B%E9%A4%B5%E7%8C%B4%E4%BA%BA-%E5%AE%88%E8%AD%B7%E9%A6%AC%E9%A8%AE%E5%B1%B1%E4%B8%8A%E7%9A%84%E7%8C%B4%E5%85%92
呂,諾君. (2018, August 29). 【搶食金拱門】蘇屋邨日日出沒 馬騮飽晒居民嬲嬲. HK01. https://www.hk01.com/%E7%A4%BE%E6%9C%83%E6%96%B0%E8%81%9E/222583/%E6%90%B6%E9%A3%9F%E9%87%91%E6%8B%B1%E9%96%80-%E8%98%87%E5%B1%8B%E9%82%A8%E6%97%A5%E6%97%A5%E5%87%BA%E6%B2%92-%E9%A6%AC%E9%A8%AE%E9%A3%BD%E6%99%92%E5%B1%85%E6%B0%91%E5%AC%B2%E5%AC%B2