WHEN I was younger, I used to feed stray cats in my neighbourhood in Selangor.
At first, it was just one cat, which later became a pet, and then over the years, there were half a dozen felines which came to our house from every corner of the neighbourhood.
Not satisfied with just staying outside the back door as food was laid on the grassy backyard, some would intrude into the kitchen.
Our then-maid had the unenviable task of chasing out these bolder felines, but they kept coming back.
To discourage the strays, my family adoptedapolicy of putting food near the fence, which was much further away from the kitchen. Over time, the cats stopped coming altogether.
These memories came flooding back in Teluk Chempedak, Kuantan, when I saw residents feeding more than a dozen wild monkeys recently.
These primates emerge daily from the nearby forest to feed on food provided by picnickers at the popular beach, a result of people being too kind without putting serious thought into the long-term consequences of the “kind act”.
Not that people should suddenly turn into cold and distant beings, but we need to tick a few points off our mental checklist before sharing our food with wild animals.
In many cases, feeding wild animals could erode their fear of human beings, turning them into a nuisance, and sometimes, posing a danger to man.
An example of this was on March 6 at Teluk Tongkang, adjacent to Teluk Chempedak, where South Korean tourist Pyoeng Seok, 69, was set upon by a troop of monkeys.
The poor man fell on big rocks while running away and sustained head injuries.
Monkeys are a common sight at the beach, but most were fed “people food”, like bread and sweets, which are not sufficiently nutritious for them.
On May 20 last year, research news portal www.sciencedaily.com a reported that a study by the University of Roehampton in London found that wild monkeys fed by tourists in Morocco suffered poorer quality fur, higher stress hormones and 32 bouts of illnesses.
The researchers found that wild monkeys which rarely encountered tourists and relied more on their natural food suffered less of the health problems suffered by their brethren that mostly fed on food handouts from tourists.
This is an important reminder for us. With Internet-enabled smartphones and tablets, the ultimate kindness we can show to our animal friends is to google the topic and issue offeeding wild animals.
This will ensure that we know how to feed them, or not at all. A quick search will reveal that the natural food for wild monkeys are fresh fruits, leaves, flowers, roots and tree barks, as well as the occasion al ants, beetles and grasshoppers.
The well-informed tourist could bring bananas, jackfruit and rambutans, and position them far away from hotspots.
Not only will this satisfy the need to be kind to all living things, it will also reduce negative impact on everyone, man and animal, so that we can continue to live in harmony.
Hidir Reduan is NST Pahang staff correspondent. Seeks pleasure in contemplative pursuits like viewing thought-provoking documentaries and reading