Bouncer monkeys, trainer quit over pay

NANDYAL, AP: Who said humans have more muscle-power than simians? Monkeys are more gung-ho, at least when it comes to teaching a lesson or two in fisticuffs to their simian brethren.
Local municipal officials, who had employed the services of a monkey trainer and his band of two rowdy monkeys to protect the radar dome here, discovered the value of monkey power the hard way.
Monkey trainer Saidulu brought his two monkeys, ‘Goonda Shankar'' and ‘Gowri'' to protect the radar dome and its scaffolding from 30 pesky local monkeys, which were hell-bent on pulling the dome down. The radar centre is the nerve centre of the state''s cloud-seeding operations.
Armed with sticks, Gowri and Goonda Shankar successfully drove the other monkeys away. The mere sight of Goonda Shankar, puffing away on a cigarette (yes, he has a weakness for tobacco) was enough to keep the monkeys at bay. The dome was thus safe for four days from the rebel simians.
But Saidulu, who had come down from Markapuram in Prakasam district, was not paid anything during this period. He asked for Rs 100 as wage, but was told he and his two "wards" would only be provided food for the duration of the stay.
A peeved Saidulu took his monkeys and left for Markapuram on Sunday, forcing the local municipal officials to post four government employees on guard duty, two in the day shift and two in the night. Armed with sticks, these two teams are patrolling the building, doing the same job that two monkeys did with so much ease.