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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: September 2007

Malaysia plans to export street macaques to labs & live markets

 

KUALA LUMPUR--Malaysian natural resources and environment minister Seri Azmi Khalid at a September 5, 2007 press conference asserted that the government had not lifted a 23-year-old ban on exporting long-tailed macaques, but admitted that plans are proceeding to export macaques captured in cities to laboratories and Chinese live markets.

"I did not use the word 'lift.' The media quoted me wrongly," Seri Azmi Khalid claimed, according to Loh Foon Fong of the Malaysia Star.

Bernama, the Malaysian National News Agency, reported on August 17, 2007 that "Malaysia has lifted the ban on the export of long-tailed macaques."

"The cabinet has decided to lift the ban because we want to reduce the number of long-tailed monkeys in urban areas. The lifting of the ban is only for peninsular Malaysia and does not cover Sabah and Sarawak," Seri Azmi Khalid was quoted as saying.

Reporting about the same speech, Elizabeth John of the New Straits Times wrote that Seri Azmi Khalid said the export ban had been "lifted."

Seri Azmi Khalid asserted that 258,406 long-tailed macaques inhabit urban areas in peninsular Malaysia, while 483,747 remain in forests.

"Follow the money trail and trace who the benefactors are," suggested Mohd Khan Momin Khan, former director-general of the Malaysian Wildlife and National Parks Department. Heading the department, called Perhilitan, from 1972 to 1992, Mohd Khan Momin Khan "was instrumental in getting the 1984 trade ban," wrote Hilary Chew of the Malaysia Star.

Continued Chew, writing with S.S. Yoga of the Star, "Last week, Seri Azmi Khalid candidly told participants at a climate change workshop that he had been approached by 'some bright people who saw that money could be made from exporting monkeys.'"

Wrote Chew and Yoga, "Sources said the proposal to export monkeys came prior to the retirement of Perhilitan director-general Musa Nordin last October. In a telephone interview, Musa said he was 'indirectly involved' in the trade, but declined to comment when asked if he had teamed up with a wildlife trader. When pressed further, Musa said 'Go talk to Perhilitan. They're the one making the policy. I'm retired.'"

"Sources reveal," Chew and Yoga added, "that at least one company has submitted a business plan to the ministry proposing an export volume of between 12,000 and 20,000 monkeys per year. Each shipment will carry between 2,000 and 2,500 specimens. The business plan lists the likely buyers as two laboratories and one breeding center in China. One of the laboratories is the Kunming Primate Research Centre, which is affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The center was set up in 2005 as a research base for experiments against infectious diseases and bio-terrorism."

Ardith Eudey, author of the World Conservation Union's Action Plan for Asian Primates, warned that the plan to capture urban macaques could cover for bootlegging macaques out of the wild.

"It looks like the government is attempting to create an export market," Eudey said,
"Eudey pointed out that urban monkeys are not desirable, as they have been in contact with humans," wrote Chew. "A country such as the U.S. wants clean monkeys for research purposes, meaning captive bred, Eudey said."

Mohd Khan Momin Khan agreed that it is "a misconception that there is a demand for macaques caught from urban areas," Chew continued, since "Urban monkeys are known to have tuberculosis and assorted intestinal diseases. They do not make good test subjects, and are not appealing to exotic food importers," either.

"Eventually, senseless poaching of wild monkeys will ensue to fill the demands of importers," Mohd Khan Momin Khan warned.

"Allowing urban monkeys to be hunted almost certainly will lead to trapping of monkeys in the jungle," affirmed Malaysian Animal Rights & Welfare Society president N. Surendran, questioning whether Perhilitan even has the capability to monitor macaque captures, or to distinguish urban-caught macaques from those trapped in the forest.

Surendran and others formed the Malaysian Animal Rights & Welfare Society as a coalition opposed to the macaque exports. Coalition members include the SPCA Selangor, Malaysian Animal Assisted Therapy for the Disabled Association, Parti Keadilan Rakyat, and the Malaysian Association for Responsible Pet Ownership.

The coalition "lodged a police report against Seri Azmi Khalid and [wildlife] ministry officials for violating Section 92(f) of the Protection of Wildlife Act 1972" in rescinding the macaque export ban, Chew wrote.

Wrote Surendran in a Malaysia Star guest column, "No country can call itself civilized when it ill-treats its wildlife in so cruel a manner. We call upon Khalid to immediately restore the ban on trade of macaques; halt all pending macaque shipments overseas; release all macaques currently in captivity and awaiting transport; and consult with animal welfare groups and experts to humanely respond to macaque problems."

"In a way, this is a success story," the Malaysia Star editorialized. "The peninsular population of long-tailed macaques declined by 25% between 1957 and 1975, when their trade was unregulated." While the macaque population recovered, the Malaysia Star recounted, "Urban and industrial development pushed back the forest. Without a 'countryside' to speak of, there are few if any buffers between forest and human habitat" in many areas, "which has allowed wild monkeys freely to invade urban areas. They are famously adaptable animals, at home everywhere from the seashore to mountaintops. Urban environments are positively appealing to them, with virtually unlimited access to abundant food.

"They are at best pests and at worst menaces," the Malaysia Star asserted. "Trapping them for relocation has been tried, but was found to have deleterious effects on the ecosystems where they are released. Expatriated urban macaques clash with forest-domiciled troupes over territory," with the urban monkeys tending to prevail because they tend to be larger and more aggressive. Decriminalizing the export of macaques as exotic cuisine has two dubious advantages," the Star suggested. "The trade is nothing new, having persisted illegally during the 30 years of the ban; and it can make money."

A Perhilitan study conducted between March and June 2007 looked at the possible effects of exporting urban macaques for five years at rates ranging from 20% of the population per year to more than 90%. At 20%, the macaque population would remain stable and might even grow. At 90%, if such a high capture rate could be achieved, only 31 monkeys would remain in urban areas.

Macaque experts did not endorse the Perhilitan recommendations. "If the root of the problem is people feeding the macaques, teaching them that humans equals food, then more should be done to educate the public," Chris R. Shepherd of the World Wildlife Fund subsidiary Traffic Southeast Asia told John of the New Straits Times.

Eudey recommended "positive educational and control programs," citing the examples of Hong Kong and Singapore, and invited Malaysia to participate in the next Congress of the International Primatological Society, at Edinburgh. Scotland, in August 2008, "when the pest problem posed by macaques will be examined in detail."

In Barbados, Eudey added, "Despite trapping and exporting 10,000 vervet monkeys for research over 14 years, crop raiding has not been reduced and the monkey population remains stable," as the wary survivors of capture efforts continue breeding up to the carrying capacity of the habitat.

"The catch phrase 'monkey menace' is common now in many urban areas, from New Delhi to Kuala Lumpur," observed primatologist Govindasamy Agoramoorthy, of Tajen University in Taiwan. "It's easy to blame the monkeys for creating havoc in urban areas. But are the monkeys really to be blamed? With ever shrinking natural forest and less availability of natural food sources, the monkeys are adapting to the unique human creations of concrete jungle and palm plantation."

Unmentioned amid the Malaysian macaque debate is that in Malaysia, as elsewhere throughout Asia, monkeys are also taking advantage of steeply declining street dog populations to extend their range--as ANIMAL PEOPLE pointed out in January/February 2002 and June 2007 cover features.
--Merritt Clifton