The large cages, which allow monkeys plenty of space to roam around inside, were put in place yesterday (Sept 12), Director of the Khao Phra Thaew Natural and Wildlife Education Centre Pongchart Chouehorm, explained today.
A total of 250 monkeys will be captured and taken to be sterilised at the Phuket Mueang District meeting hall on Narisorn rd, starting tomorrow (Sept 14), he said.
Afterwards, the monkeys will be released back into the wild where they were captured, he added.
Mr Pongchart noted that his team met with local residents in the Soi Tah Jeen area in Rassada on the east side of Phuket Town, last week, where monkeys were rounded up, sterilised and released back into the wild in ‘Round 1’ of the campaign.
The feedback was positive, Mr Pongchart said, adding that the residents there were becoming more aware of not dumping waste where wild monkeys could get to it, which prevented the wild monkeys from becoming increasingly dependent on residents for providing a food source.
“All of the people understood this well and were responding to it,” he said.
Under the monkey mass-sterilisation campaign’s initial foray, Hundreds of monkeys were removed from areas where residents complained that they had become a nuisance and were presenting a health threat, with entire troupes moved to Koh Thanan (see story here) and Koh Payu (see story here) , both small islands off Pa Khlok.
However, many of the monkeys were released back into areas where they were already living as residents had approved for the wild troupes to stay (see story here).