PRACHUAP KHIRI KHAN - Several hundred of the burgeoning population of macaques at Khao Takiab in Hua Hin district will be sterilised in response to numerous complaints they were causing trouble for local residents and visitors to the popular spot.
Officials said 500 of the estimated 3,000 monkeys on the mountain would initially be trapped and sterilised.
The operations would be done at Hua Hin Dog Shelter in Hua Hin municipality from Friday to next Thursday by vets from the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) and Mahidol University.
Officials from the DNP set up a large cage in front of Guan Yin statue on Khao Takiab on Thursday to begin catching the monkeys. Fruit was placed inside to lure them into the trap.
A lot of monkeys had entered the cage by Friday morning. Visitors were being asked to stop feeding the animals and instead give the food to officials for use in the cage.
Poj Thapprathum, chief of the Phanthai Norasing Wildlife Reserve in Samut Sakhon, said it had been agreed sterilisation was necessary to curb the macaque population at Khao Takiab.
Villagers had complained the large number of macaques on the mountain were causing problems for local people and visitors to the site. Hua Hin Municipality had requested that action be taken.
Apichart Jakthapnet, resident of Ban Khao Takiab, said the the monkeys had been causing a nuisance for a long time. Everyone agreed it was the right decision to sterilise some of them to reduce the population.
The villagers were satisfied, and confident the trouble caused by the macaques would come to end, he said.