Locked behind bars, almost 1,000 shrieking macaques are working themselves into a feverish frenzy. The gangs of former street macaques have spotted their upcoming feast, and they are jostling for a prime position.
Moments later, the keepers enter and the screeching animals pounce. Like swarming rats, they clamber over each other to grasp their prize; within seconds, the crates of banana, jelly and Yakult are empty.
Until very recently, these chaotic scenes weren’t unfolding behind steel mesh but across downtown Lopburi, a Thai town roughly 100 miles north of Bangkok where marauding macaques ruled the streets.
Dubbed “Monkey City”, the animals have been central to Lopburi’s identity and a major attraction for curious tourists. As their numbers swelled, long-suffering locals became fed up.
Homes and people were increasingly under attack; the dreary, grey high street was lined with shuttered shops after businesses relocated to avoid the carnage. The town’s mayor described Lopburi as almost an “abandoned town”.
Then, in March, the final straw: a man was shoved off his moving motorbike by hungry macaques hunting for food, while a woman was knocked over and dislocated her knee.
“The conflict between people and monkeys escalated, we had to act,” Suttipong Kaemtubtim, director of wild animal conservation at the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP), told The Telegraph.
“The root issue was monkey overpopulation, but they were going into houses, stealing from shops, cars, out of people’s hands. They were causing accidents – there was an increase in motorbike incidents related to monkeys. So we had to step in to control the situation.”
In late April, the government announced a three-step peace plan to capture, sterilise and rehouse the majority (though not all) of the macaques. So far, a police “monkey unit” has trapped almost 1,200, using tropical fruit as bait to trick the monkeys into mesh relocation crates.
While the end goal is to release the macaques in a 3,000-acre sanctuary-like space, for now, they’re being taken to large cages dotted across the city. This includes the ‘Monkey Garden’ in Lopburi’s southwest suburbs, where three fully enclosed cages each hold around 300 of the excitable monkeys that went berserk at feeding time.
Catching and transporting the macaques here was no mean feat, said Mr Suttipong, especially as Lopburi’s many street gangs had to be separated.
“There is a class system in monkey society. There’ll be a larger male monkey at the top of each gang who, with his entourage, has the best status. And then younger, strong monkeys can fight to move upwards,” he explained.
“We have to catch the troops within their gangs, and put them each in a different cage to stop them from fighting each other over food and space… they are all very territorial.”
On the other side of town, a Buddhist temple has built an open-air ‘Monkey House’ enclosure (complete with a viewing platform for visitors) to house another 300. When the Telegraph visited the newly completed enclosure, the strongest macaques were attempting a desperate bid for freedom - trying, with limited success, to scale the corrugated iron walls.
But inside a makeshift on-site clinic, where cheesy Thai pop tunes were blaring on the radio, was a more surreal scene. Dozens of sedated, shaved macaques neatly lined across countertops, their arms tattooed with digits detailing where and when they were neutered.
“We sterilise them to combat the issue of overpopulation, but we also vaccinate them against diseases like rabies which could jump to people,” said Sunita Wingwan, a DNP vet, as her colleagues carried two stupefied new arrivals across the room by the scruff of their necks.
“I cover four provinces, but Lopburi absolutely has the biggest problem with macaques. Actually, it has the worst problem in Thailand,” she added.
Sterilising the rapidly breeding macaques is not new – Thai authorities have neutered or spayed about 2,600 since 2014 (in a Buddhist society, culling the animals is off the cards). However, locals lament that these efforts have had limited impact.
Somp*rn Iampin, who runs a small shophouse selling duck noodle soup overlooking an ancient Khmer temple known for hosting ‘monkey buffets’ every November, said the population has spiralled out of control over the last six years.
On the shop counter is Ms Iampin’s deterrent: a wooden slingshot and two dozen clay balls. Monkeys in this area are yet to be rounded up, and others on the street still have stuffed tiger heads or electric wires to scare them away. Some served customers behind metal grates.
“They constantly cause trouble, they come into the shop, climb onto tables, grab food,” Ms Iampin said, complaining that the new initiative was long overdue. “We don’t want to hurt them, but there are too many. They cause constant trouble.”
Supap*rn Tantiwong agreed that the government had to act, and said clearing other areas had already reduced the density of monkeys roaming outside her shop. But the 39-year-old, who runs her family’s car part business, isn’t against the macaques, in fact, she lets babies crawl all over her.
“I always feed the monkeys, I think some people don’t realise they’re only aggressive when they’re hungry – there’s no natural food source for them here, so they have to find human food,” Ms Tantiwong said.
“I do think we needed a compromise to control the population, the market and many shops in this area had to close. We just have to make sure the cages where they live have good conditions and plenty of food,” she added. “I’m worried the government doesn’t have enough money to look after them properly.”
Earlier this year Lopburi’s mayor, Chamroen Salacheep said he intended to do “big cleaning across the town and paint all the buildings” once the monkey operation was completed.
Ms Tantiwong just hopes Lopburi doesn’t lose its heart in the process.
“There’s a famous story in this area, linked to a monkey character who protects the King in the legends,” she said. “At the end of the war, the King’s arrow came down to this city and it became the ‘Monkey City’. That is our history, it’s why people visit.
“We have to control the population, but I’m glad they’re not going to take all of the monkeys away. I’d miss them if they were gone.”
