{"id":566593,"date":"2026-07-24T21:29:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T21:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/566593\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T21:29:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T21:29:20","slug":"mating-season-may-be-behind-monkeying-around-on-hong-kong-mtr-tracks-expert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/566593\/","title":{"rendered":"Mating season may be behind monkeying around on Hong Kong MTR tracks: expert"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Hong Kong could see more monkey encounters during the animals\u2019 mating season, an expert has said, after one was spotted on MTR tracks for a second day in a row.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The MTR Corporation, the city\u2019s rail operator, said staff found a monkey loitering near Tsuen Wan station at around 9am on Friday and informed police and the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Services on the Tsuen Wan line continued, although train frequencies were slightly adjusted. Trains between Tai Wo Hau and Central ran every five minutes, while services between Tsuen Wan and Tai Wo Hau were briefly suspended.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Police and department officers later removed the monkey from the track area and services on the Tsuen Wan line gradually returned to normal at around 10am.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">A photo released by the railway operator showed the monkey sitting on the tracks, facing dozens of passengers on the platform.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">An SCMP reporter observed that announcements about an \u201canimal on the track\u201d were played almost continuously in MTR stations.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Juha Merilae, a chair professor in ecology and biodiversity at the University of Hong Kong, told the South China Morning Post that the monkeys\u2019 mating season was between July and December, when males dispersed, adding that the city could see more monkeys in the near future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hong Kong could see more monkey encounters during the animals\u2019 mating season, an expert has said, after one&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[3810,147487,90088,240,61,60,239181,239185,239184,239182,82,10178,239186,239183,263],"class_list":["post-566593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-agriculture","tag-connor-mycroft","tag-fisheries-and-conservation-department","tag-hong-kong","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kowloon-bay","tag-kwun-tong-line","tag-mtr-corporation","tag-mtr-stations","tag-science","tag-south-china-morning-post","tag-tsuen-wan","tag-tsuen-wan-line","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}