Photo: Chalida EKvitthayavechnukul/AP.
Monkeys eat fruit during a monkey feast festival in Lopburi province, Thailand, Nov. 27, 2022.
Today’s story is about overly aggressive monkeys that went from being a tourist attraction to rather dangerous predators.
I don’t think I knew monkeys could be like that, but then, we don’t get many local monkey stories in the Northeast. Unless you count my story about the librarian on my street who was looking out her window as she dressed one morning and saw a little, wrinkled, old-man face staring at her.
That one turned out to be an escaped pet.
Jintamas Saksornchai at the Associated Press writes, “Thai wildlife officials laid out a plan [in April] to bring peace to a central Thai city after at least a decade of human-monkey conflict. The macaques that roam Lopburi are a symbol of local culture, and a major tourist draw. But after years of dangerous encounters with residents and visitors and several failed attempts to bring peace with population controls, local people and businesses have had enough.
“The monkeys frequently try to snatch food from humans, sometimes resulting in tussles that can leave people with scratches and other injuries. But outrage grew in March when a woman dislocated her knee after a monkey pulled her off her feet in an effort to grab food, and another man was knocked off a motorcycle by a hungry monkey.
“Authorities hope to round up some 2,500 urban monkeys and place them in massive enclosures, said Athapol Charoenshunsa, the director-general of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation. They’ll work with wildlife experts to find a way for a limited number of monkeys to stay at liberty in the city, he added. …
“An official monkey catching campaign was launched week, prioritizing more aggressive alpha males. It has caught 37 monkeys so far, most of whom have been put under the care of wildlife authorities in the neighboring province of Saraburi, while others were sent to the Lopburi zoo. Officials said they plan to capture the rest of the monkeys once the enclosures are complete, especially those in the residential areas. …
“The monkeys are a symbol of the province, about 140 kilometers (90 miles) north of Bangkok, where the ancient Three Pagodas temple celebrates an annual ‘Monkey Buffet’ festival, and they’re commonly seen throughout the city. Macaques are classified as a protected species under Thailand’s wildlife conservation law.
“Some have blamed the city’s monkey troubles on tourists and residents feeding the animals, which they say drew monkeys into the city and boosted their numbers, as well as getting them accustomed to getting food from humans.
“But an earlier effort to limit feeding may have made things worse, some residents say. Local officials began threatening fines for feeding monkeys outside a few designated areas around the main tourist attractions in recent years. But those feeding areas were dominated by a few troops of the highly territorial creatures, while rival bands grew hungry and turned to harassing humans in other areas for food even more.
“Athapol said people shouldn’t see monkeys as villains, saying that the authorities might have not been efficient enough in their work to control the simian population.
” ‘People also need to adapt to the city’s monkeys,’ said Phadej Laithong, director of the Wildlife Conservation Office, explaining that a lack of natural food sources prompts the animals to find food wherever they can, including from humans.”
More at WPRI in Providence, Rhode Island, here. There’s audio on this dilemma at The World, here.
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