Park officials hit back at macaques after they wreaked havoc on residents in Lop Buri province by kicking off an operation on Monday to move them out of the municipality for good.
A dozen workers from the Natural Resources, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department placed cages at several locations in the city in the hope that monkeys would enter them and be trapped inside. Their main target was Ratchadamnoen Road in Muang district.
The department hoped to catch at least 30 monkeys on the first day of the operation, which could last until Wednesday.
Krirkwit Phuphayak, chief of the Khao Sompoj non-hunting area, told Channel 3 that they had to adjust the hunting tactic from shooting them with sedative bullets. It took at least five minutes for them to become sedated and by that time they could escape to other places, including going to the top of buildings which could pose a danger to people, the official said.
The hunt started after the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry on Saturday agreed to compensate people attacked by monkeys amid a growing problem in Lop Buri, including at least three major cases this month.
The Lop Buri Municipality on Sunday alerted residents to the operation. Monkeys caught by the mission would be released at the Wildlife Rescue Centre in Nakhon Nayok, it said.
Boonmee Phaeju, a tailor at a shop in the municipality, told Thai PBS that the animals grabbed anything from people walking in the area. "Sometimes they snatched mobile phones from students. I went after them but I could do nothing because the monkey went up to the building," she said.
Lop Buri is not alone in fighting naughty macaques. Koh Chang in Trat copes with the same problem and is mulling a plan to counter them.