Planet of the monkeys: Humans try to reclaim lost Thai city
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Lopburi
Lopburi is an ancient Thai city overrun by monkeys super-charged on junk food, whose population is growing out of control.
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Monkey menace
Pointing to the overhead netting covering her terrace, a resident bemoans the monkey menace across the heart of the 13th-century city in the central province of the same name.
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Primate pandemonium
The fearless primates rule the streets around the Prang Sam Yod temple in the centre of Lopburi, patrolling the tops of walls and brazenly ripping the rubber seals from car doors. Their antics were largely tolerated as a major lure for the tourist hordes who descended on the city before the coronavirus outbreak to feed and snap selfies with the plucky animals.
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Waging a war
A government sterilisation campaign is now being waged against the creatures after the epidemic provoked an unexpected change in their behaviour. As foreign tourism -- Thailand's cash cow -- seized up so did the flow of free bananas tossed their way, prodding the macaques to turn to violence.
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An uneasy coexistence
Footage of hundreds of monkeys brawling over food in the streets went viral on social media in March. Their growing numbers -- doubling in three years to 6,000 -- have made an uneasy coexistence with their human peers almost intolerable. Some areas of the city have simply been surrendered to the monkeys.