SATUN — A massive enclosure looking like something out of Jurassic Park will be a new home for some 1,000 monkeys right in the middle of a park in Satun province.
“Monkey House” (Baan Ling) is an open-air structure of 20-meter high columns across a 80-meter space criss-crossed with climbing beams. City officials say the structure will serve as a sanctuary for around 1,000 homeless monkeys that routinely wreak havoc for residents and visitors in the city center.
Previous attempts to sterilize the monkey and control the population did not work.
“Even using a slingshot only chases them away for a little while. They always come back,” Jensilp Muen-tae, a guard at the park said.
He had been at wit’s end in dealing with the monkeys. His belongings, including his motorbike seat and side windows, have all been ripped and broken by the monkeys.
Prasert Laknasirolak, 65, a local resident in the area, also said that the monkeys have been a longtime nuisance for him, constantly damaging his roof and vegetable garden.
“I agree with the local government building them a house so they won’t cause so much inconvenience,” he said.
City workers are working to round up the monkeys and move them into their new home, which will officially open to visitors on Dec. 18. Satun city is also inviting the local communities to give an official name to the monkey enclosure.
Monkeys in Thailand can often run rampant in cities outside of Bangkok. In Songkhla, a group of monkeys overran a house whose owner was away on Songkran vacation.
A shortage of tourists and their food offerings at the Prang Sam Yod temple complex resulted in a thousand monkeys warring for food in March on the streets of Lopburi city.
