The Monkeys here in SE Asia are notorious for stealing people's things like wallets, phones, etc. But they are still such fascinating creatures. Like all wild animals they aren't very predictable and they can be very bold when it comes to food.
So I tried to keep this in mind when I went to Ubud's Monkey Forest. I was filming a group of them and crouching low to the ground. All of the sudden a baby started to wander up to my camera looking quite curious. I tried to back up a bit but to no avail. It was looking into and grabbing my lense hood. It quickly smacked my lense. It didn't harm the camera at all but spooked me a bit.
That was was when my friend shouted at me to look out! I glanced up to see the momma baring her teeth and hissing at me. I went into a bit of a panic mode and stood up, put my arms in the air, and back away while keeping intense eye contact. These were all of the things I shouldn't have done. It started to get closer and was still hissing at me until one of the Balinese men raised his slingshot threateningly and the monkey backed off.
So bottom line Monkeys aren't as cute as they seem.
