Cambodia probes YouTubers’ abuse of monkeys at Angkor Wat Unesco site: ‘needs boundary between human intervention in nature’
- Authorities say abuse of monkeys at the Angkor Unesco World Heritage site is a growing problem as people look for new ways to draw online viewers to generate cash
- The search for food from tourists also draws monkeys from the surrounding jungle to ancient sites, where they pull away pieces of temples and cause other damage
A baby monkey struggles and squirms as it tries to escape the man holding it by the neck over a concrete cistern, repeatedly dousing it with water.
In another video clip, a person plays with the genitals of a juvenile male macaque sitting on a limestone block from an ancient temple to get it excited for the camera.
The abuse of monkeys at the Angkor Unesco World Heritage site in northwestern Cambodia is not always so graphic, but authorities say it is a growing problem as people look for new ways to draw online viewers to generate cash.
“The monkey should be living in the wild, where they are supposed to be living, but the monkey nowadays is being treated like a domestic pet,” said Long Kosal, spokesperson for APSARA, the Cambodian office that oversees the Angkor archaeological site.
“They’re making the content to earn money by having the viewers on YouTube, so this is a very big issue for us.”
