TAK — When police entered Nikorn Manpakdee’s house Friday morning, they found him busy in the kitchen. What was cooking in his kitchen? A severed macaque head, 2 kilograms of skinned macaque meat, and the animal’s legs and arms.
They arrested the 41-year-old Tak man on the spot in Tak’s Nong Bua Naur tambon for allegedly killing the animal on protected forest land.
“The dissected monkey parts are mine. I hunted it in the forest to eat it,” Nikorn told the police of the dismembered, crab-eating macaque.
who was arrested Friday morning in Tak.
Lt. Col. Dendiew Dontumpai and wildlife officers confiscated the macaque’s carcass, skinned meat, head, legs and arms. They also took Nikorn’s motorcycle.
Friday morning, locals were putting out a forest fire in the Baan Rai Taa Trakoo Protected Forest when they saw Nikorn ride out of the forest on a motorcycle without license plates. Thinking him suspicious, they called the police who went to Nikorn’s house and found the monkey carcass.
A test of Nikorn’s urine found traces of methamphetamine.
According to Dendiew, Nikorn’s has been in and out of jail repeatedly for theft and drug-related crimes. Nikorn said that this was his first time hunting a monkey.
Police will charge Nikorn with hunting a protected forest animal and possessing a protected animal carcass without a permit.
Under Thai law, crab-eating macaques can be kept in captivity and bred only with an appropriate license.
