Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
is known locally as the “Monkey Foundation.” There are no entrance fees to
the Sarn Pra Karn shrine, but revenues from voluntary donations are in part
awarded to the Monkey Foundation to employ staff who are responsible for
feeding the monkeys and managing human-monkey interactions at the Sarn
Pra Karn site. As they are separate organizations, each shrine is responsible for
the management of the macaques and visitors in its own area.
As for the residents of Lopburi, it is considered their personal responsibility
to protect their homes and personal belongings from the macaques. Protective
barriers (e.g., metal fences) around some people's homes and steel guards on
television antennae, as reported by Malaivijitnond and Hamada (
2008
) are still
in use today, and some additional barriers have been added, including barbed
wire and electric fences. The efficacy of these obstructions is debatable as
monkeys were frequently observed agilely climbing over barbed wire, over
steel guards, shaking antennae, and touching, climbing, and even chewing on
the electric fences.
The main organization responsible for the management of macaques and
human-monkey interactions in Lopburi is the Monkey Foundation. The foun-
dation has been established for over ten years and had a large committee of
thirty-one members representing local people, several government bodies, an
NGO (WARF- Wildlife Aid and Rescue Foundation of Thailand), infrastructure
associations, local veterinarians, the headmaster of a local school, and several
other stakeholder groups which are affected by or had knowledge concerning
this interface. Although this committee contained a broad representation of
most groups affected by or directly involved in the human-monkey interface,
it lacked one vital representative - a primatologist. We suggest this needs rec-
tifying, as management planning would benefit from having primate experts,
experienced in studying human-macaque interfaces, on the board.
As part of a government plan to control populations of these commensal
macaques in Lopburi, a sterilization program organized by the Monkey
Foundation was initiated in May 2009. A local veterinarian and her team of
three to seven assistants were observed regularly seizing adult and subadult
males mostly (but not exclusively) from the groups living outside the shrine
areas - mainly those living around the Fire Station and those on the residential
area south of Prang Sam Yot. By August 2009 the local veterinarian had cas-
trated over 140 males. The veterinarian told the investigator that the monkeys
were selected according to scrotum size and, in particular, monkeys which
were showing evidence of hernias. The reason given for the choice of cas-
tration as the sterilization method was to reduce aggression with the aim of
reducing human-monkey conflict. Whilst the monkeys were anaesthetized for
castration, the veterinarian also inspected the monkey for general health and
