Niall Hatch

speaker

1,514 appearances 30 recordings 3 series first heard Apr 2026 last heard 21 Sep

Niall Hatch’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

Trend

recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 30 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 10.

Appearances

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Mooney Goes Wild · Wildlife & The Wallace Line · 13 Jul 2026 podcast

They know that humans want to come close and be in the same photograph

stand near them for whatever reason to hold up those black rectangles.

And the monkeys have learned this.

And so they pose and look very happy and smiley and wait for the human to come close enough.

And then they just grab the phone or they grab the sunglasses or whatever it may be very, very quickly.

And then you have a few seconds or maybe a minute to affect the transaction, that bribe.

Again, they may then just throw your phone back to you or drop your glasses if they're happy with what you've given them.

If they're not happy, it's straight over the cliff into the sea.

So it's really remarkable.

So it's very frustrating and obviously not good that these monkeys have learned they can intimidate humans, but remarkable thinking.

I'm sure not that surprised, Niall. voice-verified

Don't we share something like 93 or 4% of our DNA with macaques? voice-verified

We do, and when you look at them, you would realise that when you see them there and observe them for any period of time, which you can do in an area where they're not frightened of humans, you can see these family dynamics happening with them.

You can see how the mothers care for their babies so affectionately.

It's really wonderful to watch these tiny little newborn monkeys, which are black in colour, so you can see them quite clearly against their grey mothers who are holding them.

They're clinging on to the bellies, they're feeding them, they're really taking great care of them.

And woe betide anyone who would be come between a baby monkey and its mother, because deservedly so, you would get in trouble with the monkey for that.

But other than that, they're not going to go up and actually attack you, but they are quite intimidating.

The thing I've learned about monkeys all over the world, not just these macaques, is if you imagine a very agile animal that has sort of the brain power and the temperament of a toddler, but that can run up trees and bite.

That's kind of what a lot of monkeys are like.

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