Malaysia plans to export street macaques to labs & live markets

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, 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

 

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

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