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A troop of macaques has been ravaging the Moso Bamboo Forest Trail in Taitung’s Taimali, eating the shoots before they have a chance to mature. Add to that typhoons winds blowing down older stalks, and the forest on Daylily Mountain is becoming increasingly sparse. Locals have tried everything to drive away the monkeys, to limited success. It wasn’t until earlier this year that they brought in a pack of dogs from a nearby vegetable garden to guard the forest, successfully driving back the brazen monkeys.

Seeing delicate bamboo shoots poking up from the ground is moving for the residents of this forest. For a while, they’ve been battling a troop of macaques that have been eating the shoots before they have a chance to grow, causing the forest to thin out until the weeds began growing taller than the bamboo.

Tsai Cheng-ming
Local hotel owner
There have been a lot of macaques around here the past few years. They eat all the shoots before they have a chance to grow. We thought they’d eat them all again this year, meaning the shoots will never grow into bamboo.

This is the Moso Bamboo Forest Trail on Daylily Mountain in Taimali. The 100 meter-long path used to be known as Taitung’s Xiaoxitou, but due to the macaques and typhoon damage, the once-dense thicket is nearly gone.

The monkey invasion has been intense, driving residents to exhaustion in their attempts to drive them away. But earlier this year, they turned to a nearby cabbage patch to enlist the help of their guard dogs.

People go daily to feed the eight dogs. With these canine sentinels, the macaques haven’t dared to return.

Tsai Cheng-ming
Local hotel owner
Cabbage doesn’t grow much during this season, so the dogs were just at home. We asked the neighbor if we could borrow them and brought the dogs to the trail. The growth this year has been pretty good. Some shoots are finally getting the chance to grow. We haven’t seen growth like this for 30 years.

Enlisting a pack of dogs to keep the macaques away has proven a resounding success. But the residents are also warning visitors to avoid the trail for now, as the dogs are highly territorial. It’s best to wait until the bamboo matures and the dogs return home before revisiting this hidden gem of Taimali.

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