The macaques took over the police station in Lopburi in central Thailand, but the authorities have come up with a cunning plan to deal with their hairy and lairy neighbours
Authorities have come up with a cunning plan to deal with their hairy and lairy neighbours(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
A war has been launched on a troop of 200 aggressive monkeys… by hitting them where it hurts.
Thailand is a nation famed for its hairy, tailed residents mingling with tourists and locals. But the wild monkey population has been increasingly wreaking havoc with its human neighbours. One recent incident saw a couple of hundred highly charged simians swinging in to take over a police station in the town of Lopburi in central Thailand. But, rather than going on a monkey massacre, authorities have come up with a cunning plan to deal with their hostile co-inhabitants.
A few years ago, the same town that witnessed the cop shop invasion launched a sterilisation campaign as a countermeasure, a move that evidently didn’t yield the desired results.
The primates are a part of life for residents in Thailand(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
However, given the reverence many Thais hold for macaques, the nation is gearing up for another attempt.
Bangkok, the capital city, has announced plans to neuter up to 100 macaques as part of an ongoing initiative to regulate their population.
Last year, 122 macaques were sterilised in Bangkok’s Bang Khun Thian district, with another hundred lined up for the procedure in the coming month.
Currently, approximately 330 macaques inhabit three distinct areas of the Bang Khun Thian district, with the Ua Samae Dam Arthorn estate being home to the largest group of 136 monkeys.
‘You’re going to snip my what now?'(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
The Department of National Parks, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation (DNP) is spearheading a sterilisation programme, aiming to promote harmonious living between humans and macaques.
The immediate plan involves establishing specific feeding zones to prevent the macaques from straying into residential spaces.
A mid-term strategy is to persist with the sterilisation of the monkeys and register them for tracking purposes. while a long-term objective, the district intends to move the monkeys to a city-owned land parcel that will be transformed into a conservation centre, a project that will require substantial funding and workforce to realise.