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  Straits Times 29 Sep 07
Bounty on Cambodian monkeys terrorising tourists

PHNOM PENH - CAMBODIAN police have put a US$250 (S$370) bounty on the heads of several monkeys who have been terrorising tourists at a key temple in the capital and destroying nearby residents' laundry, officials said yesterday.

At least three of the large macaques, which have been biting tourists at the famed Wat Phnom pagoda and also tearing up Internet lines, are being targeted, deputy district governor Pich Socheata said.

'There are more than 200 monkeys there, but only three monkeys that behave badly... they behave like gang leaders,' she said. 'The other monkeys are afraid of people. But these monkeys are not - they are scaring tourists visiting Wat Phnom.'

The authorities had tried several times to get the unruly monkeys to eat eggs laced with sleeping pills but had always been outsmarted, she said, hence the bounty.

Wat Phnom is crowded with semi-tame macaques, which occasionally cause havoc to nearby homes and hotels, tearing apart tile roofs and stealing any loose items that they find.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
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