A lone monkey, about the size of a toddler, leaps from branch to branch above the wreckage of a World War II plane.<\/p>\n
It looks harmless, but it is one of about 5,000 long-tailed macaque monkeys overrunning Angaur, a remote island just 4 square kilometres at the southern tip of Palau.<\/p>\n
“It’s probably a deposed old monkey,” says Marvin Ngirutang, the island’s former governor and our tour guide for the day.<\/p>\n
An old male monkey, living by WWII wreckage, is smart and elusive.(ABC Radio Austrlaia: Elillai Rengill)<\/p>\n
“They live by themselves for the rest of their lives.”<\/p>\n
Mr Ngirutang ensures we stick to the road and well-worn paths.<\/p>\n
“It’s full of unexploded ordinances,” he warns.<\/p>\n
The northern part of Angaur is littered with bombs from the 1944 Battle of Angaur in World War II, a bloody campaign between US and Japanese forces.<\/p>\n
It has kept people out, but created a haven for the monkeys.<\/p>\n
With no natural predators, their numbers have exploded since their introduction more than a century ago.<\/p>\n
WWII bomber wreckage litters the northern jungle on Angaur.(ABC Radio Australia: Elillai Rengill)<\/p>\n
Now, US military land clearing is pushing them south, where they are threatening the island’s agriculture and food security.<\/p>\n
Faith Swords, one of the 114 people left on the island, has lived with the monkeys all her life, but over the past few years, she has been invaded.<\/p>\n
“Right now, they’re pests,” Ms Swords says.<\/p>\n
“You grow your taro, then you go the next day and it’s all gone because the monkeys have destroyed it.”<\/p>\n
Faith Swords says people travel more than 60 kilometres to the island of Koror to buy food.(ABC Radio Australia: Elillai Rengill)<\/p>\n
“It breaks culture, because right now the younger people don’t know how to fix taro because it’s all gone.”<\/p>\n
Residents now have to import their food \u2014 even coconuts \u2014 and as they continue to leave the island, the monkey population climbs.<\/p>\n
How did the monkeys get here? The legacy of phosphate mining is contaminated ponds, like this one.(ABC Radio Australlia: Elillai Rengill)<\/p>\n
It began in 1899, when Germany colonised Palau and began mining phosphate in the north of Angaur.<\/p>\n
Monkeys were introduced from Indonesia and used like canaries in coal mines to detect toxic gas.<\/p>\n
When World War I broke out, Japan took control of Angaur and continued the phosphate mining and turned the island into a militarised zone \u2014 so did the displacement.<\/p>\n
The US military has maintained a military presence since World War II.<\/p>\n
Marvin Ngirutang shows James Nokise a map of Angaur.(ABC Radio Australia: Elillai Rengill)US military plans<\/p>\n