The Danfamu River Temple in Vansapon County, northeastern Thailand, is home to local rhesus macaques.
Since I don't know when, the local rhesus monkeys have made their home here, and the monks naturally do not drive them away, and even feed them with rice and fruit. It didn't take long for word to spread that the area had "harmonious scenery", attracting many tourists, who also brought a variety of food to feed the monkeys or go to the local vendors to buy some food. These rhesus macaques have apparently created a virtuous economic cycle for the local area, but in recent months the local rhesus monkey population has significantly decreased.
When the monks brought food, the number of monkeys rushing to greet them was greatly reduced. This naturally attracted attention, and after the local media went to investigate, they found that hundreds of local monkeys disappeared out of thin air!
The local police immediately stepped in to investigate, and the chief police officer of Wansaspray County, Pracha Sankrang, promised to unravel the mystery as soon as possible.
Why did the monkeys disappear?
The results of the investigation were quickly available, and it didn't even take much effort. It turned out that one night in mid-February, a local noticed three men who had never met sneakily wandering around the temple, thinking of the secret news of the monkey's disappearance, and the locals decisively called the police.
The police quickly went to arrest the three people, and found that they were indeed stealing monkeys, because they forcibly stunned the monkeys and kidnapped them, so two monkeys had died.
During the interrogation, the three people obviously confessed to the truth, although they were different, but they all insisted that they thought the monkey was cute and wanted to steal it and keep it as a pet. How could the police believe their nonsense, but there is no other anti-conviction evidence at present, so they can only be locked up first and continue the investigation.
The police were upset, they knew that the monkeys were not the only ones stealing the monkeys, because the number of temple monkeys disappearing was increasing. Unable to solve the case in a short time, the police were under great pressure, so they began to wonder if the monkeys felt that there were fewer tourists and less food, so the monkeys began to return to the forest.
But locals don't think so at all, believing that the animal trade is the reason for the disappearance of monkeys. Edwin Vic, founder of the Friends of Wildlife Foundation in Thailand, also thinks so, because he has seen many cases of monkey theft, which are first sent to the border, sent to Cambodia or Laos, and then sold to the United States as captive-bred monkeys.
Cases of illegal monkey trafficking abound
Anek Naxoon, an official of Thailand's Department of Wildlife Conservation of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, said in an interview that there have been more than 10 cases of illegal monkey trafficking in central Thailand, whether in the wild or in tourist scenes, as long as there are monkeys.
And the means of these perpetrators are more professional, they will anesthetize monkeys with tranquilizers, such monkeys are more "complete". A mountain in Khlong Sawan in central Thailand once housed more than 100,000 monkeys, but thanks to poaching and smuggling teams, there are now just over 10,000 left.
The local people do not understand why so many monkeys have disappeared, and why the local area has not strengthened patrols and monitoring?
Greedy humans
This situation increased rapidly after the beginning of the new crown epidemic, because in the context of the new crown, there was a "monkey shortage" in laboratories in the United States, so the price of experimental monkeys naturally rose wildly. According to investigations, in the past illegal wildlife market, the price of these monkeys was 20-30 US dollars each, but now the price has risen to 20,000-24,000 yuan!
With such a horrific rise, how could those criminals eager to make quick money let it go? They worked as a team, scattered to different areas, caught monkeys in large numbers with tranquilizers, then held them in groups of 50-100, sent them to Cambodia, and then exported them to the United States under the guise of raised monkeys.
Most terrifyingly, some of Thailand's official wildlife officials were also involved. These officials will find a way to get fake export licenses and sell them to the United States. According to the survey, in November 2022 alone, 2,634 wild monkeys were sold to the United States, with a total value of $9.36 million.
postscript
One thing is to say, the United States did take drastic action against illegal trade, and they also passed a new law, the Food Safety Modernization Act 2.0. In the past, if drugs were to be tested on humans, they had to be tested on animals, but now there is no such requirement.
However, in order to save costs, some pharmaceutical groups naturally cannot abandon animal testing. Last week, Charles River Laboratories, the world's largest supplier of laboratory animals, received a subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice for an investigation into the supply of primates in Cambodia.
Monkeys are predators and prey, as well as seed dispersers. They are buffers to protect human health, and the United States steals them from the forests of Southeast Asia. "It's a kind of biological predation."