Monkey Business: Why Sri Lanka wants to export 100,000 endangered toque macaques to China

Sri Lanka has a monkey problem and it is now seeking China’s help for a solution. The cash-strapped nation is reportedly mulling exporting around 1,00,000 endangered monkeys to the Asian country.

On Wednesday (12 April), Sri Lanka’s agriculture minister Mahinda Amaraweera said, as per AFP, “They want the monkeys for over 1,000 zoos they have across China”.

He further said a committee has been formed to study the request and iron out a plan for the proposed sale.

Let’s take a closer look at the monkey menace in Sri Lanka and why China’s request has caused concerns among conservationists.

Sri Lankan monkeys

Sri Lanka is home to three monkey species, with the endemic toque macaque causing the most menace.

The toque macaque is labelled as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list.

As per the AFP report, the island nation removed several animals, including monkeys, peacocks and wild boars, from its protected list this year, thus giving a green light to farmers to kill them.

Monkey menace

Monkeys spell trouble for farmers in Sri Lanka as they destroy their crops. They also enter homes, steal food, sometimes attack people and leave the place in an upheaval.

According to Amaraweera, monkeys and giant squirrels destroy nearly 100 million coconuts every year, fuelling a loss of around 6,638 million Sri Lankan rupees ($19.3 million), reported Mongabay.

Arjuna Jinadasa, a farmer who owns land full of coconut trees in Kurunegala, in northwestern Sri Lanka, told Mongabay in March: “These monkeys destroy at least 200 young coconuts daily, and now my monthly yield is reduced to about 250 coconuts”.

He said despite trying several non-lethal methods to prevent these monkeys from raiding crops, the primates continued their aerial attacks.

As per a preliminary report on crop damage caused by wild animals in the country, toque macaques and giant squirrels mostly target coconuts, while elephants, wild boars and peafowl are majorly after paddy.

The report says wild animals were responsible for crop damage that caused an estimated financial loss worth 30,215 million Sri Lankan rupees ($87.5 million) in the first half of 2022.

“Sri Lanka is facing a severe economic crisis, and the recorded crop devastation intensifies the food crisis we already face here. The government is looking for ways to reduce the population of identified wild animals considered agricultural pests,” Amaraweera was quoted as saying by Mongabay. 

The minister also blamed the increase in human-elephant conflict on crop raiding.

Speaking to Mongabay, Buddhi Marambe of the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Peradeniya said that animals targeting crops are a “complex” issue that “doesn’t have simple, ready-made solutions”. However, Marambe stressed on controlling the population of such menace-causing animal populations.

Marambe, who was part of a meeting of experts convened by the agriculture ministry last December, said many solutions were being considered to deal with the menace, including translocations and sterilisation.

However, Ashoka Dangolla of the veterinary faculty at the University of Peradeniya told Mongabay that translocation of the animals “does not work” and instead called for sterilisation to control the crop-damaging animal populations.

Criticism of sending monkeys to China

PTI reported citing Ada Derana news portal that a special meet chaired by minister Amaraweera and attended by officials from the Agriculture Minister, Department of National Zoological Gardens and Department of Wildlife Conservation was held on Tuesday to discuss the possible translocation of 1,00,000 monkeys in the first stage.

But conservationists have expressed doubts about Sri Lanka’s possibly selling toque macaques, commonly known as rilawa, to China – one of Colombo’s biggest bilateral lenders.

The island nation, which is facing its worst-ever economic crisis, prohibits almost all live animal exports, according to AFP.

The Environmental Foundation, a Sri Lankan animal rights group, has objected to the proposal saying a proper population survey of macaques should be carried out in the country which has not been done for the last 40 years.

“We want to know why they want so many monkeys – whether it is for meat, medical research or some other purpose,” the foundation’s Jagath Gunawardana was quoted as saying by AFP.

“Monkeys are not a protected species in Sri Lanka, but they are in the international red list of endangered animals,” Gunawardana added.

Gunawardana also cited agricultural growth curtailing wild animal habitats for rise in human-animal conflict in the island nation.

With inputs from agencies

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