Stumptailed Monkeys May Find Home In Thailand

UW–Madison and Thailand officials continue to work together to create a new home for the UW–Madison stumptailed monkey colony housed at the Henry Vilas Zoo.

There are about 50 stumptailed macaques at the zoo. The National Institutes for Health (NIH) will not fund either the UW–Madison stumptailed or the rhesus monkey colonies housed at the zoo after Feb. 1.

NIH, however, has continued to support UW–Madison’s offer to donate the monkeys to the zoo, but zoo officials have not accepted that offer for a variety of reasons, including: the recent completion of a primate display at the zoo that includes monkeys and apes; lack of funds to maintain the monkeys and the facility; the complex management required to handle aggressive, sexually active monkeys in the colony; and the concern about the herpes B virus, which some of the colony’s macaques carry.

The Wild Animal Rescue Foundation of Thailand has identified a wildlife center in Thailand that it says is eager to take the colony.

The Thailand Ministry of Agriculture has approved placing the animals at the Krabok Koo Wildlife Center, 135 kms east of Bangkok. Kemnitz has been informed that the Krabok Wildlife Center is 200 acres of savannah and forest and shelters more than 400 animals, mainly gibbons and macaques of various species including stumptails. The Foundation would like to construct a new enclosure for the monkeys and has a long-term goal of developing an education center.

“We believe the center could be a good place for the stumptails,” said Joe Kemnitz, interim director of the UW–Madison Primate Research Center. “Thailand is the ancestral home of the stumptails, but, we naturally want to find out more about the center and the arrangements for their long-term care before we make a final decision.”

Ways for transporting the monkeys to Thailand are being explored. Montana Senator Max Baucus has offered to help arrange their transportation by a private carrier, according to Kemnitz. Assistance from the State Department is also a possibility.

Plans to transfer about 100 rhesus monkeys to the Tulane Regional Primate Research Center in Covington, Lousiana are continuing. A date to send them has not yet been set.