In today's Finshots we look at the global monkey trade and see how Sri Lanka is adopting a rather unconventional approach to tackle a growing problems.

But before we dive in, here's something that might catch your attention.

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Now, on to today's story.

The Story

A bizarre news report from the Hindu caught our attention recently.

It was about a Sri Lankan academic testing intrauterine devices (IUDs) on female macaques in an attempt to seemingly control their population.

We know that’s a lot to process at once. So let’s break that down properly.

Macaques are a species of monkeys. They are found across Asia, North Africa, and even parts of Europe. And usually, humans don’t meddle with the mating habits of animals, let alone implant IUDs–contraptions that prevent pregnancies in humans.

However, Sri Lanka is giving this a shot because they are desperately trying to contain the damage from the burgeoning population of Macaques.

To give you more context, in 2010, a local from Sri Lanka wrote to the editor of the Lankan Times saying this-

“Residents in and around Ambalangoda are plagued by the monkey menace. The monkeys invade the gardens during the fruit-bearing season. They do not spare any edible fruit or even flowers when fruits are out of season. These creatures jump from roof to roof in the town, breaking tiles. They also perform acrobatics along the electric mains and telecom cables.”

Sure, you could argue that this report from over a decade ago may be a bit dated. But, believe us, the problem hasn’t gone away; it has, in fact, been exacerbated. From destroying crops to barging into homes and even attacking people, these monkeys continue to cause serious harm to humans. And at the centre of this chaos are the notorious Toque Macaques, native to Sri Lanka.

But how did it come to this point, you ask?

Well, the roots of this escalating conflict lie in Sri Lanka's 26-year-long ethnic war between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The war led to widespread deforestation for military use. Fast forward to 2009, rapid post-war development further fragmented forests, pushing monkeys into human settlements. They were simply searching for more food.

By 2015, these encounters had turned into widespread conflicts throughout the nation.

Experts also believe that locals' and tourists' feeding of monkeys, coupled with poor garbage management, has transformed their habits entirely.

And guess what?

The conflict is costing the country millions of dollars in lost coconuts and agricultural damage. According to the Agriculture Minister of Sri Lanka, these pesky wild macaques and giant squirrels destroy almost 100 million coconuts every year, resulting in a staggering loss of $19.3 million.

This significant damage is a primary concern as the country’s agricultural backbone is firmly rooted in the coconut industry, contributing around 12% to the nation’s total agricultural output. Moreover, Sri Lanka is the world's fourth-largest exporter of coconut products, and this contributes substantially to the government’s tax revenues.

So yes, this is a wild situation (pun intended) that needs some serious attention.

And it’s not as if the locals and the government haven’t tried every trick in the book to solve this nuisance.

The government has implemented measures like relocating monkeys to protected areas, reinforcing wildlife protection laws, and launching community awareness programs. It has also promoted non-lethal deterrents like monkey-proof fencing and scare devices. When these didn’t work, the government even issued shotguns to farmers amid mounting complaints of widespread crop damage.

Despite these efforts, the problem persists.

However, last year, a tempting proposal from China got the Sri Lankan government thinking. It wanted Sri Lanka to sell upwards of 100,000 Toque Macaques for display in Chinese zoos. The proposal faced immediate resistance from conservationists. They were sceptical, fearing these macaques might end up in testing laboratories instead.

And their concerns were valid.

Macaques are not just mischievous monkeys swinging from tree to tree. These highly intelligent animals experience emotions much like we do. And they share a significant amount of genetic material with humans, with some species like the rhesus macaque being about 93% genetically similar. This makes them good models for studying human biology, diseases, and responses to treatments.

And as a consequence, they’ve taken a primary role in medical research.

Consider for instance the race against time to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. These monkeys played a pivotal role during this period with countries like China paying top dollar for these animals.

But it’s not just a China thing. India, too, employs monkeys in research. In his book, the then ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) chief, Dr Balram Bhargava, quoted how 20 Rhesus macaques were used for Covaxin trials in 2020.

And like Sri Lanka, India, too, was once a significant exporter of this primate. They’d primarily export these monkeys to the USA and they even had a minimum price of $50. But by 1978, the Indian government banned the export of Rhesus Macaques for research, taking a stand against exploiting a species that holds a revered place in Indian culture.

Yet, the global trade in monkeys remains robust.

The U.S. National Association for Biological Research highlights how crucial non-human primates are to scientific progress. For instance, around 70,000 monkeys from various parts of the world are brought to the USA every year to study everything from infectious diseases to brain function and drug development. The value of a single long-tailed macaque has shot up to an astonishing $20,000.

But the story doesn’t end there.

The massive monkey import industry stretches far beyond what we can fathom. While legal exports have dwindled due to protests from animal welfare organisations, large-scale trafficking persists in the shadows. A new market for exotic pets has emerged, with monkeys, especially smaller species like marmosets, priced at about Rs 4-5 lakh, becoming status symbols for the wealthy.

This brings us back to that headline from the Hindu.

We started this story by saying that the use of IUDs in monkeys is a bizarre proposition. But the reality is that it’s a very humane solution to a very real problem. The global monkey trade is booming and countries have some very strong incentives to shoot, kill and export these animals for research. But there are good people still trying to find alternatives. They are trying to strike a balance between human needs and animal welfare.

Will they succeed? We don't know.

We can only hope that the researchers’ efforts bear fruit.

Until then…

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