What species are featured in the documentary Monkey Thieves?
Monkey Thieves
Monkey Thieves (Hindi: बंदर चोर), also known as Rebel Monkeys, is a documentary series produced by National Geographic, examining the habits and social interactions of rhesus macaques in the city of Jaipur, in northwestern India. Monkey Thieves follows a family of urban macaques within Jaipur's 'Pink City' and all the drama that comes from living close to humans. The series tells the story of the "Galta Gang", a sixty-strong troop that lives in the Galta Temple, a Hindu temple on the outskirts of Jaipur. This bunch live in luxury because worshipers believe they personify Hanuman, the cherished 'Monkey God' who banished evil in the Indian epic Ramayana. Defending their prized home from invaders including neighboring langur monkeys and other troops of macaques, as well as exploring Jaipur in search of food and adventure, keeps this troop in action.
Monkey Thieves
We are introduced to the Galta Gang, a 60-strong troop of wild but urbanised rhesus macaques who live in Galta Temple residing in the city of Jaipur, northwestern India. Tarak is the alpha male, at ten years old and has been in charge of the troop for nearly three years. He and his troop live a life of luxury within the compound of the Galta temple where they are fed a continuous variety of food by passing worshippers who pay their respects to lord 'Hanuman', the 'Hindu Monkey God'. With so much food and an abundance of water at the spring pool situated at the lower compound of the temple, the Galta Gang have little reason to leave home and go to the ever busy streets of Jaipur but now there is a setback. The long-awaited monsoon rains are late this year and food is running out, which means that Tarak and his troop are being given less and less food as people have to save what they have for themselves, meaning that there is little to give monkeys. As the drought continues meaning less food for the troop, Tarak leads the gang out into the city streets in search of feeding opportunities. Rhesus macaques are highly adaptable and can thrive almost anywhere, for this reason the Galta Gang, like all the 50 other troops of rhesus macaques roaming the city of Jaipur, have adapted to living in close proximity to humans and can navigate through the network of electrical wires around the city streets. The three most troublesome youngsters, Bipin, Yash and Tito, along with young Kavi get up to their usual mischievous antics. Kavi tries to chew on an electrical cable and gets a small and brief electrical shock, which was just a warning of the potential of the electrical cables designed to carry voltage not monkeys. After travelling the streets for a few hours, Rani, the Queen of the troop, decides to engage the troop in some grooming. Rani is the alpha female, is fifteen years old and already has six offspring. Her youngest and latest baby, Esha, automatically inherits the throne and has the highest rank in comparison to not only her older sisters but also all the females in troop. While most of the troop members enjoying a grooming session, the troublesome teens Bipin, Yash, Tito and tag-a-long Kavi resort to a game of jumping into a water trough, despite the interruption of visiting street dogs to the trough for a drink, before being fended off by the teens. Eventually the troop come across a feeding opportunity; an open window of an apartment. The human owners were out of sight, giving the Galta Gang an opportunity to enter the house through the kitchen window and search for food and it was not long before the whole troop ransacked the kitchen, searching for food items and turning the place upside-down! While most of the gang have their minds on food, Binita, Rani's oldest daughter, decides to do her own survey through the objects, such as utensils and cables, including breaking open a medicine bottle. Eventually the home owners hear the commotion and the troop flee from sight, with some of the gang tagging along their items. With everyone sated, Tarak leads the troop back to the temple for the evening, but as most of the troop relax, one member did not make it back home. During the flee from the apartment, Kavi made a potentially lethal mistake of taking to the electrical wires networking around the streets and unfortunately he suffered a massive electrical shock. He is still alive but utterly injured and not just physically. Kavi lies on the ground where he had fallen from the high voltage electrical wire and left alone he is completely vulnerable.