By South China Morning Post | Created at 2024-11-14 02:26:47 | Updated at 2024-11-14 16:21:07
14 hours ago
Marauding monkeys won’t face catapults any more in the historic Thai city of Lopburi, where they have been rounded up and sterilised after turning rampant over the past four years.
Before Covid-19 shut Lopburi, some of its 58,000 residents casually fed the 3,000 long-tailed macaques that lived alongside and even threw an annual fruit banquet for them, drawing tourists to “Monkey City”, a three-hour drive north of Bangkok.
The macaques, believed to bring good fortune, also inhabit nearby forests and have long been a part of the city’s history.
But after Lopburi came out of the pandemic lockdown in mid-2022, its residents found that the monkeys, without people feeding them, had become unruly.
Troops of macaques had taken over buildings, often confronting residents, stealing food and causing accidents. Gangs of monkeys also fought in brawls, shocking locals. Some residents resorted to caging themselves within their homes.
“Their method is robbery – by all means,” said Wisarut Somngam, a local researcher with Ecoexist Society, a non-governmental organisation, where he is studying the situation.
