Thai Town Launches Plan To Lock Up Marauding Monkeys And Send Them Away
HuffPost
Lopburi is being run ragged by more than 2,500 wild monkeys so officials are trying to trap the simian raiders using trickery and ripe tropical fruit.
LOPBURI, Thailand (AP) — A Thai town, run ragged by its ever-growing population of marauding wild monkeys, launched an offensive against the simian raiders on Friday, using trickery and ripe tropical fruit.
Several high-profile cases of monkey-human conflict recently convinced authorities in Lopburi in central Thailand that they had to reduce the animals’ numbers.
If all goes well, most will end up behind bars, before starting a new life elsewhere.
The first stage of the plan, instituted Friday, is to bait cages with the animals’ favorite food, then wait for hunger to get the better of their natural caution.
There was early success for the catchers on one street, with three of the macaques falling for the ruse and ending up trapped because they had fancied a taste of rambutan fruit. The cages had been placed on the street earlier in the week so the monkeys got used to them and found them less threatening.