Sri Lanka testing IUDs to control monkey p as farmers push for guns
By Apsara Rodrigo
COLOMBO – Sri Lanka is planning the second stage of testing intra-uterine devices on red-faced monkeys as a means of controlling their population, as cries from farmers who want to cull them as crop-destroying pests grow louder.
Sri Lanka’s Agriculture Ministry has identified toque macaques, wild boars, peacocks, and giant squirrels among key pests damaging crops. Farmers are calling for air guns to protect crops.
Following State Finance Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya’s announcement that allocations have been made to help farmers acquire air rifles, Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Amaraweera in January provided air guns to farmers cultivating pineapple, pomegranate, guava and papaya.
Researchers and Sri Lanka’s Peradeniya University, are testing birth control on the mammals.
Professor of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, Ashoka Dangolla said he has been working with eight monkeys.
The IUDs were inserted and they are X-rayed every month. They are now ready for the next step.
“We need to capture 2 or 3 male monkeys to live with these monkeys and to see if they will mate and if the females will become pregnant,” he explained.
In February 2023, Sri Lanka removed peacocks, grizzled giant squirrels, porcupines, wild boars and toque macaques from a protected list.
Although farmers had requested for standard rifles, the Ministry of Agriculture provided them with air rifles as an interim measure to solve the problem with monkeys, with Amaraweera assuring that if the situation worsens, standard rifles will be issued.
Controlling the monkey population through sterilization is a more humane choice, Dangolla said.
However, researchers face problems, especially with limited access to funding.
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