Surachat Chanprasit from Lop Buri – Thailand’s famous ‘monkey city’, about two hours north of Bangkok – considers monkeys not only cute, but also incredibly smart, cheeky and curious, with traits strikingly similar to humans.
However, he is less fond of it when he wears his other hat as deputy director of the Pingya Shopping Center.
Entire troops of long-tailed macaques are causing chaos and destruction throughout the city. So while tourists are enamored with the primates, residents are less enthusiastic.
“They entered our shopping center through the roof and some weak points in the wall,” Surachat told dpa. “Once they get in, they will destroy our merchandise and our electrical equipment, causing massive damage to our inventory.”
Gangs of primates have repeatedly caused a short circuit by tampering with the high-voltage transformer on the roof.
Worse still, the monkeys continue to demolish the entrance sign. “They always try to take the sign off every time we just fixed it,” Surachat said.
The Javanese monkeys are becoming increasingly aggressive, damaging customers’ cars and motorcycles and stealing their groceries. It deters people, reducing the number of store visitors and even driving away store owners and investors.
The monkeys were once a blessing to the city of Lop Buri before becoming a curse.
People once flocked from all over the world to take photos of the animals hanging from electricity poles and lounging in front of the Khmer ruins of the famous Phra Prang Sam Yot temple.
But the aggression and destruction push the residents to their breaking point. Clashes between humans and macaques are escalating, resulting in injuries, prompting authorities to find a solution that satisfies everyone.
A woman recently twisted her knee when a macaque pulled her to the ground. Another man was injured when a hungry monkey jumped on his scooter as he rode past the monkey temple, with shopping bags hooked to his handlebars. The driver fell and injured his foot, while more animals rushed towards him and dived into his bags.
“I don’t want people to have to hurt monkeys, and I don’t want monkeys to have to hurt people,” Athapol Charoenshunsa, director general of Thailand’s National Parks, recently told reporters. At the end of March, a special police unit equipped with catapults was deployed to control the primates.
The results so far have been mixed.
“Because the provincial government cannot do anything with the monkeys – such as capturing or sterilizing them – without permission from the Department of National Wildlife. It is illegal,” says Surachat.
The officials were tasked with capturing the boldest and most brutal monkey leaders. They caught several dozen more to take to other provinces or zoos. That wasn’t enough to resolve the situation.
Last year the city alone had more than 2,200 animals, a high number for an area where fewer than 60,000 people live. Meanwhile, there are approximately 5,700 macaques living in the province as a whole.
When Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin visited Lop Buri a few weeks ago, some citizens saw an opportunity to personally appeal to him for help. “In fact, monkeys are one of the unique features of Lop Buri. But public safety is also important,” he said, promising to investigate the issue.
But the situation is complicated. People have been feeding the monkeys for years, so they automatically associate humans with food.
The animals, formally known as Macaca fascicularis, live almost exclusively in Southeast Asia and are listed as “critically endangered” on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, and are protected in Thailand.
The animals are already extinct in Bangladesh and it is not certain whether there are any left in Laos. But some still live in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines.
Some locals, including Surachat Chanprasit, want the monkeys removed from the list of protected animals in Thailand.
Capturing or relocating macaques without permission from Bangkok is illegal. Although many animal rights activists advocate for the protection of the monkeys, they often overlook the concerns of local residents.
Bangkok’s latest plan is to move most of the monkeys into large enclosures, leaving a smaller group in the city.
However, as The Nation newspaper notes, the enclosures must be spacious enough for the monkeys to live comfortably and stress-free – and these areas have yet to be built.
For now, the city is setting up a macaque control center, as recently announced by Environment Minister Phatcharavat Wongsuwan. Most monkeys will be sterilized there before being moved.
But until that happens, the monkeys remain free in Lop Buri, much to the delight of many tourists.
A macaque monkey eating a piece of fruit at the famous Phra Prang Sam Yot temple. People once flocked from all over the world to take photos of the animals hanging from utility poles and lounging in front of the temple. The monkeys were once a blessing to the city of Lop Buri before becoming a curse. Adryel Talamantes/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
In Lop Buri, Thailand, wild monkeys attract tourists but wreak havoc on locals. Chaiwat Subprasom/SOPA images via ZUMA Wire/dpa
