Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 8.5. An advertisement from a Mauritian newspaper giving notice of a weekend
fair at a Catholic church featuring the local specialty of curry No. 2 or monkey curry.
infections by various pathogenic agents (Matsubayashi,
1992
). In 2008, of the
28,091 primates imported into the US for medical research 26,512 (94.3 per-
cent) were long-tailed macaques. The second leading exporter of this species
is Mauritius (behind China). The UK also imports a relatively large number of
long-tailed macaques, mostly originating from Mauritius. In 2008, 5,396 long-
tailed macaques were imported into these two countries. A similar number,
entered the US and UK in 2007 (Thirlray,
2008
, 2009). The country expects a
total of around 10,000 monkeys to be exported each year for an annual income
to Mauritius of about 20 million USD (Pappiah,
2001
). In Mauritius, there
are two major companies that only export animals born in breeding facilities.
However, other exporters are interested in the more immediate rewards and
export wild-caught animals. The effect this has had on the natural popula-
tion over the last fifteen years is unknown but expected to be drastic. This, of
course, is not good for the long-term sustenance of this new national economic
product.
