(CN) Hong Kong Monkeys

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South China Morning Post

Saturday, February 15, 2003

http://hongkong.scmp.com/hknews/ZZZMTMMA3CD.html

 

Sterilisation fails to control spread of monkey invaders

Residents say the primates are breaking into homes as they move into

new territory

by KEVIN SINCLAIR

 

A boy feeds a monkey on a Sha Tin road. Government warnings

urging people not to feed monkeys are often ignored. Picture by Wan Kam-yan

 

Wild monkeys are spreading rapidly into new areas of the New

Territories despite a government drive to sterilise males and control

breeding by injecting females.

 

The powerful and potentially dangerous rhesus macaques have

started

breaking into homes in Sha Tin Pass and Sai Kung. They have also stripped

banana orchards on the slopes of Ma On Shan and a colony has appeared near

the Shataukok border area.

 

Now there are fears the population boom could get out of control

unless the government speeds up its programmes to keep the primates' numbers

to manageable levels.

 

Lau Wai-fai, the village representative of Wo Yi Hop, said that last

summer the hamlet near the Shing Mun reservoir was invaded frequently by

monkeys.

 

" In the old days, we sometimes got monkeys climbing on the houses. But

last summer, there were many more intruding into villagers' three-storey

houses and climbing on to roofs or balconies looking for food, " he said.

 

" Bands of monkeys of considerable size climb into our Lungyan [Dragon

Eye] fruit tree every day and shake off the fruit to fill their stomachs.

They strip the trees. So the government is injecting these animals to stop

them breeding. Good. I support that. We have to control the numbers. "

 

Senior country park officer Yeung Ka-ming, of the Agriculture,

Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD), said monkeys were one of

wildlife rangers' biggest headaches.

 

" They are creating a great nuisance at Shing Mun reservior, " he said.

" There are now reports of monkeys at Sha Tin, Tuen Mun and Wong Shek, right

at the end of the Sai Kung Country Park. There are also large numbers around

Kowloon reserviors.

 

" My worry is the way they are spreading, " he said. " Personally, I

think more drastic action is required to reduce the number of monkeys.

Simply asking people not to feed them, which is impossible to implement, is

not a solution. "

 

Wong Tak-ming, village representative of Lo Wai in the hills above

Tsuen Wan, also supports the move to neuter monkeys. " There are far too many

of them, " he said.

 

" Monkeys steal things from people walking in the hills. They follow

school children who go for picnics. "

 

James Wong Ming, a founder of the Sai Kung-based Friends of Mauping

ecological group, said monkeys had broken into houses in villages at the top

of Po Lo Che district. " Villagers say the animals come down every year from

Ma On Shan to steal bananas from their orchards, " Mr Wong said.

 

" They look wild but do not seem hostile to humans. People get hurt

because they feed the monkeys. "

 

Gail Cochrane, veterinary director for the Animals Asia Foundation,

said much of the problem stemmed from irresponsible people who fed wild

monkeys. She cited the case of an engineer who drove to Shing Mun reservoir

so he and his son could lean out their car windows and feed monkeys. " And

this is an educated person, " she lamented.

 

The AFCD is trying to persuade people not to feed the animals by

putting up advisory posters in country parks, while rangers are also issuing

verbal warnings to picnickers.

 

But Dr Cochrane complained: " The message is still not getting through.

More education needs to be done, more patrols are needed, more people need

to be prosecuted for feeding. "

 

She added that if the monkey population continued to expand, the

sterilisation programme would need to be stepped up - and sooner rather than

later.

 

She said trapping was problematic as monkeys learnt to avoid traps,

suggesting an alternative would be a surgical operation on females to

prevent them getting pregnant.

 

But once again, cost is a factor and this may need specialist

equipment and highly trained surgeons.

 

" This option would require a major financial and logistical

undertaking, " she said.

 

Dr Cochrane points out that macaques carry the virus Herpes simiae,

which can be fatal to humans. It can be transmitted in saliva by a monkey

spitting into a person's face or by biting them.

 

" There are also parasites which may be transmitted and a lot of other

really nasty viruses, which fortunately don't appear in Hong Kong, " Dr

Cochrane said.

 

She estimated there were 600 or more female monkeys currently breeding

in the New Territories.

 

The founder of the Animals Asia Foundation, Jill Robinson, says the

increasing numbers of wild monkeys are a big problem.

 

" It's a problem that won't go away while the public is simply asked to

stop feeding them, because these instructions are almost always ignored, "

she said.

 

Ms Robinson believes the kindest solution is to continue the

government's " trap, neuter and release " programme.

 

" This is in the best interests of people and animals alike, " she said.

" They are dangerous when adult and hungry. "

 

David Dudgeon, a University of Hong Kong professor, said that monkeys

could be a menace in places where they were expecting people to feed them.

 

Dr Yeung said that since the sterilisation programme started last

summer, more than 30 monkeys had been sterilised and plans for expanding the

programme were underway.

 

AFCD teams are trapping the monkeys in areas where they are most

common, notably around the Shing Mun reservoir.

 

The creatures are then anaesthetised before being injected with drugs

that make females infertile for five years and permanently sterilises males.

The animals are then freed.