Serious monkey matters

A male macaque monkey was shot dead yesterday morning by police at Wat Phnom, following a series of attacks on visitors to one of Phnom Penh's key attractions. It's a problem I highlighted a while back after I experienced some unruly monkey behaviour and gnashing of teeth at Phnom Chisor, as I called it then, "an accident waiting to happen." At some of the key 'touristy' pagodas you can often find a troop of monkeys, attracted by the potential for food scraps raised by the increased level of visitors. An M-16 assault rifle was used to kill this particular 20kg monkey after a local man received bites to the head, both hands and legs whilst jogging in the immediate vicinity of the park surrounding the hilltop pagoda. The police are now deciding whether to catch some of the more vicious monkeys and transfer them to Phnom Tamao Zoo. However, when I visited the zoo, there were more monkeys outside the cages than inside, so I'm not convinced that's the long-term answer.