Monkeys would not only eat the fruit, but also use them to settle territorial disputes – the monkey that could throw a Pineapple the furthest would win. The Monkeys also used pineapples for hunting birds and fish. According to local legends, monkeys could knock birds from the branches of trees from a distance of up to thirty metres. The monkeys would venture out into the surf and hit small fish over the head with the pineapples

The end for the monkeys came during the Second World War when the Japanese occupiers came under attack by the pineapple-wielding monkeys and fired back with live ammunition, killing most of the monkeys. Those that weren’t killed were eaten, because their meat had a slightly sweet, delicate flavour, which came from eating pineapples as their staple diet.

This is an extract from the book Animals Evolution Avoided