A gaggle of giggling children have gathered on a dusty sidestreet in downtown Jakarta. They jostle for position around a smaller child sitting on a wooden bicycle. But on closer inspection, the kid in the flashy jumpsuit and cape is revealed to be none other than a monkey: meet Monkey Knievel, the daredevil chimp of Indonesia.

Performing monkeys have, rightly or wrongly, been part of the cultural landscape of street life in Indonesia for generations. Topeng Monyet (literally ‘masked monkey’) shows involve costumed chimps play-acting and, in Monkey Knievel’s case, doing stunning stunts on a wooden mock Harley Davidson. The monkey- handlers trawl the streets and often knock door-to-door to earn a scant living from each performance.

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Monkey Knievel is dressed to kill, and his spectacular outfit and props attract crowds who are all willing to pay good money to see him ride down flights of stairs, zoom up and down busy roads and even throw in the odd wheelie here and there. Unsurprisingly, his handler, Pak Sawal, is delighted with the attention
the hirsute hellraiser is getting.

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Though the practise of Topeng Monyet is attracting controversy even in the traditional cultural landscape of Indonesia, it seems unlikely that the reproaches of animal welfare organisations will hold much sway with the impoverished slum dwellers who rely on the performing animals for an income.

The grey macaque monkeys are usually captured from the nearby Javanese jungle. They live in wooden boxes in the slum villages of their handlers – and both beast and man must contend with grubby living conditions.

For now, just a few miles from where incoming President Barack Obama went to school, the local kids are taking delight in their own American icon – and Monkey Knievel is flying high.

Bring out the chimp

Is this animal cruelty or cultural imperialism?

Attitudes to animal welfare in Indonesia differ greatly from those in the UK. In Indonesia, animals are routinely regarded as entertainers or trading commodities. Activists claim Jakarta’s markets – including Pramuka, the largest illegal animal market in the world – are Asia’s largest storefronts for rare animals and that the city is at the centre of an illegal multimillion business in trading illegal creatures.

Despite being protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), hundreds of monkeys are bought and sold every month as pets, collectors items or for use in food and medicine. Department stores also display jewellery and collectables made from parts of dead animals, including elephants and turtles.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) estimates that around 1,000 orang-utans are killed every year in Indonesia so that their babies can be traded illegally. It says that enforcing the national regulations and wildlife trade regulations outlined under CITES is “challenging” and that individuals involved in wildlife crime are “often well organised”.

The WWF has also set up TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade monitoring network. Chris R Shepherd, senior programme officer of TRAFFIC South East Asia, says, “TRAFFIC encourages the Indonesian government
to prioritise combating wildlife crime, and clamp down on the criminals involved in it.”

Smaller agencies tackle the day-to-day abuse of animals – International Animal Rescue (IAR) has a team in the region dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating macaque monkeys, and has a rescue
centre on the island of Java.

However, Topeng Monyet is still lauded by many as a valid art form in Indonesia – a commentator from The Jakarta Post recently wrote an article encouraging parents to ditch the PlayStations and hire a troupe for kids’ birthday parties to keep the tradition alive – suggesting that the lure of TV and videogames is more likely to kill off the practice of Topeng Monyet than any outcry over animal welfare.

For more information, see: Wwf.org.uk, Iar.org.uk, Profauna