The Apsara National Authority (ANA) captured 16 macaque monkeys that had been living in and around the Bayon Temple compound. We have to take the documentation at face value, she says. Angkor Wat is such a massive tourist draw that Siem Reap has its own airport. The donation was made a month before the Kingdoms general elections which following the dissolution of a main opposition party in 2017 fell firmly into the hands of Prime Minister Hun Sen, whose 37-year rule of Cambodia has made him the longest-serving prime minister in Southeast Asia. Disclosure: travelswithtalek.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. I think [the indictment] is going to constrict the pipeline even more, says a U.S. consultant on industry and academic monkey research who has worked in the field for decades but asked not to be named because of concerns of damaging relationships with his clients. There are a lot of this monkeys species in Cambodia . The findings of a 2023 study highlight the incredulity that Cambodia is meeting market demands legally. All Rights Reserved. We will take stricter measures to make sure that all farms comply with the national laws, as well as CITES requirements, wrote Thuok Nao, the new chairman of the CITES Management Authority in Cambodia, in an email to Southeast Asia Globe. According to an ANA notice on December 28, in addition to causing disturbances involving tourists the monkeys had posed a risk to the temples by inadvertently knocking stones loose and causing other minor damage that could become a problem if it accumulated over time. AAAS is a partner of HINARI, AGORA, OARE, CHORUS, CLOCKSS, CrossRef and COUNTER. While controls may be unchanged, talk of the indictment or Cambodias monkey industry as a whole has become taboo among wildlife conservationists. there are a lot of new baby were born in temple area. This should raise alarm bells. I so want to go to Cambodia and meet those macaques. The court document, filed in the state of Florida, lists dozens of illegal, overt acts. If found guilty, defendants would have violated CITES, according to American and Cambodian laws. Pig-tailed macaques live in dense and mixed forests in families of five to six and in large groups of up to forty. At the age of six, gibbons become adults. A family of cynos in the wild in Cambodia. travelswithtalek.com also participates in other affiliate programs and may receive commissions through purchases made through each link at no cost to you. An indictment in U.S. law is considered an accusation and defendants are innocent unless proven guilty. contact@pulitzercenter.org, Stories by Campus Consortium Reporting Fellows, Deep Dives: Ocean and Fisheries Reporting, Underreported Stories in Sub-Saharan Africa, Science Misinformation: Journalism in the Age of Truth Decay, Bringing Stories Home: Local Reporting Grants, COVID-19, Vaccines, and Global Health Inequities, OPPORTUNITIES FOR CAMPUS CONSORTIUM MEMBERS, When South-East Asias Forests Fall Silent, Waiting for Bilou's Melodious Screech Again (bahasa Indonesia), Documentary: Destruction of Sipora Primate Habitat, Cambodian Officials Charged with Wildlife Trafficking, a Wake-Up Call for Global Monkey Trade. Yes, youre right! Monkey Business is a short video about wild monkeys roaming around the streets and paths near Angkor Wat. U.S. federal court documents allege this international wildlife smuggling ring used the legal trade of captive-bred monkeys to launder thousands of wild-caught monkeys into U.S. laboratories over at least four years. We had opted for a direct flight from Ho Chi Minh City, the last leg of a long journey through Vietnam by train, boat, bus, car, foot and tuk-tuk, the ubiquitous southeast Asian rickshaw. If you are looking at the actual origins of where these body parts are coming from, then it is difficult to know how many macaques were involved in that trade, said Kite, who previously managed undercover investigations into primate labs. Large swaths of Cambodia are designated protected areas, but while laws supposedly safeguard these En route to a meeting about protecting threatened species, a government official was arrested for smuggling endangered monkeys, raising questions about Cambodias breeding industry. Nothing like the great monkey attack of Angkor Wat. If this is going to happen, it will not be good for supporting conservation of primates, Omaliss said in the 2016 article. Ancient Angkor Empire Paradise on Earth, How to visit the most secret temples of Cambodia, Things you should know before entering Cambodia, International Union for Conservation of Natures, Wisconsin National Primate Research Centre. These are establishments where local people rent out rooms in their homes to paying guests with breakfast included. Several countries, mostly in southeast Asia, stepped in to fill the gap. The prevalence and profit of the live trade often overshadows the specimen market, which lengthens the supply chain for Cambodian monkeys. Youre not growing it in a test tube. Covid showed us that if you have an emerging disease occur in a country, like Cambodia, the chance of this spreading around the world is very high.. But in what conservationists call an ironic tragedy, Kry was apprehended in New York for smuggling endangered wild monkeys into the United States. Adding to the researchers doubt is how farms more than doubled exports after 2019, when just under 14,000 monkeys were traded. The ride into Siem Reap is surprising. No units of measurement were noted. In general, watchdogs such as Transparency International have long found corruption to be endemic in Cambodia, routinely listing it among the worst in the world on its annual Corruption Perceptions Index. However, research in Cambodia discovered that there are 56 groups of them.". These events deepened pre-existing doubts about Cambodias macaque exports. One of the only public documents with information about in-country breeding facilities is a leaked 2014 letter from the CITES Management Authority in Cambodia, which until recently was led by the indicted Omaliss. There were some members of the public who frowned upon the monkey removal raid, according to Kosal. Large swaths of Cambodia are designated protected areas, but while laws supposedly safeguard these Largest monkey farm in Cambodia meets demands for monkey specimens and live animals for years before being charged for wildlife trafficking. While Cambodia has farmed macaques for years with the first shipment exported to the U.S. in 2005 the Kingdom cornered the market during the pandemic. The primate industry, worth an estimated $1.25 billion, is overseen by a UN trade convention known as CITES, which legalises the commerce through a permit system, animal welfare regulations, breeding requirements and other rules. On top of that, Canadian labs bought an additional 159 live monkeys from the U.S. that originally came from Cambodia. About $80,000 are alleged to have changed hands between Vanny Bio Research to ministry officials, according to the 27-page court document, which accuses Omaliss and Kry of overseeing these transactions, as well as organising the capture and delivery of thousands of wild macaques. Thats likely a conservative estimate, they said, based on factors including infant mortality and fertility rates. The practice of illegally taking them from their habitat to end up in a lab is something we need to stop, said Juan Antonio Gonzalez, a U.S. attorney. Nearly seven in 10 of those monkeys landed in the U.S. But none of them was tortured or killed. Come see the world with me! The U.S. biomedical community should invest in breeding these animals domestically, he says. In a specific 2018 example, the court document alleges that Omaliss and Kry agreed to receive cash payments in exchange for taking wild macaques from national parks and protected areas and delivering them to a breeding facility, as well as providing false CITES export permits for 3,000 monkeys. That was my big mistake. The letter stated Cambodia's six operational monkey farms had a total stock of nearly 56,000 macaques in 2014, a year when the Kingdom exported barely 5,000. If monkeys are to be used in research in the U.S., there is a responsibility to ensure they are well cared-for and sourced responsibly. You have to be very very careful when youre around them because they will attack and they are very unpredictable and very territorial. A version of this story appeared in Science, Vol 378, Issue 6623. That could be accomplished by designing studies that require fewer animals, and working with regulators to require fewer of these animals for research such as drug safety studies. The ANA noted that operations to capture nuisance monkeys at the temple and relocate them happened almost every year because they become accustomed to people, especially if they are fed. Facebook 'Nuisance monkeys' relocated from temples to zoo to protect tourists Wed, 30 December 2020 Mom Kunthear The Apsara National Authority (ANA) captured 16 macaque monkeys that had been living in and around the Bayon Temple compound. Khouth Sophak ChakryaPhnom PenhPublication date 06 October 2019 | 21:17 ICT. There must have been 15 monkeys out there. Thats likely a conservative estimate, they said, based on factors including infant mortality and fertility rates. Wildlife trafficking remains a serious major crime globally, the office wrote toGlobe. They can also be found in northeastern India, southern China, northern Thailand, and parts of Indochina. We need to consider what species are actually making the world go round, which species are helping to conserve, preserve and regenerate natural areas.. As the Cambodian government remains tight-lipped, conservationists wonder if the charges will spark change. But vicious and aggressive ones pose a risk to humans. Your email address will not be published. Covid showed us that if you have an emerging disease occur in a country, like Cambodia, the chance of this spreading around the world is very high.. The irony and tragedy for the macaques is that the same person supposed to protect and conserve the species has been indicted for the very opposite plundering the wild populations.. The ministry dug its heels in by stating that macaques are not caught from the wilderness and smuggled out and that rules and regulations had been respected.
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