Hungry monkeys plunder Indonesian crops

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- Bands of starving monkeys have destroyed crops around Indonesia's famous Borobudur Buddhist temple in search of food their habitat can no longer supply.

Long-tailed macaque monkeys have a reputation for knowing how to find food according to experts.
Dedi Rinyadi works for the Natural Resources Conservation Agency. Rinyadi says thousands of the long-tailed macaques went searching for sustenance Wednesday in several villages of Central Java province.
Rinyadi says the primate population has exploded due to dwindling predators, but drought has led to food shortages.
The monkeys have stolen crops and destroyed about 400 hectares (990 acres) of farmland -- including around the 7th-century Buddhist temple complex outside the sultanate of Yogyakarta.
Distressed farmers are using firecrackers and air-riffles to chase them from their villages.