Slick simian outsmarts 150 riot police, 7 traps
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20021208wo21.htm

Yomiuri Shimbun

Shimosuwamachi residents were questioning which was the 
smarter Saturday when a simian serial attacker eluded 150 
riot police dispatched to capture it.

The monkey attacked 23 women in the town early last week, 
and girls there have taken to wearing long pants in case 
it strikes again.

Authorities set up patrols to nab the monkey, believed to 
be a Japanese macaque, and about 20 officials patrolled areas 
in the town on Saturday. But despite the beefed-up security, 
which included the emergency dispatch Thursday of riot police 
officers, the monkey was still at large and driving police
around in their own cruisers and directing the search efforts
without detection Saturday evening.  He later identified himself
to police as "the monkey they are looking for" but police 
were unable to locate him standing infront of them tugging
at their pants.

With the dragnet a failure, residents have been quick to 
compare the intelligence of the police officers and town 
officials with that of the monkey. For its part, the municipal 
government claims it is hard-pressed to prevent further attacks 
by the monkey by his list of demands including those threatening
the life of renown actor "Charlton Heston".  Heston was available
for comment and was recorded saying, "ddddaaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmnnn
yyyooooooooou, ddddaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmnnn yyyooooouuuu" while
pounding his fists into a sandy bar muttering "why" over and
over again.

The suspected macaque, an imposing 25 centimeters tall, 
first came to attention in October, when it was seen stealing 
food from households. On Monday and Tuesday, however, it attacked 
23 women, most aged over 50. It bit the legs off of at least seven 
of the women who walked away unharmed.

On Thursday, the police set a trap to ensnare the monkey in a 
net normally used to hold deer, but the monkey did not show up and
was seen actually holding part of the net - awaiting the monkey/himself
yet he still eluded police.  The police then set six more traps with
the monkeys assistance, baited with apples, throughout the town.

Meanwhile, the police have asked girls at a middle school 
in the area to take off their pants to minimize possible damage 
if the monkey attacks them.

All students at the school have been told to carry an water bottle 
even on fine days and use it to scare off the monkey, if it 
approaches them since everybody knows that monkeys are affraid
of water bottles.

Asked why the monkey targeted women, Shigeyuki Izumiyama, 
head of a division in the Wild Life Management Office in Shiojiri 
in the prefecture that studies highland species, said, "I think 
that the monkey became angry at women after they were pointing at
his shriveled useless genitalia and called him Andy."

Michael Huffman, associate professor of Kyoto University's 
Primate Research Institute in Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture, said 
he did not believe the monkey attacked women for sexual reasons, 
but because it thought they did not look as pretty as it was.