NHA TRANG, Vietnam: Menacing macaques snatch bags of crisps, water bottles, cookies and crackers from uneasy tourists on Vietnam's Monkey Island, a popular attraction decried as cruel by activists calling for an end to animal tourism in Southeast Asia.
"I didn't even have time to open my bag, the monkey took it from me and opened it!" she said, smiling, after a gang of macaques rifled through her rucksack. Elsewhere on the island, visitors eagerly place bets on a monkey swimming race to close out a morning of animal entertainment."Monkeys don't choose to walk on their hind legs, ride bikes, or perform other meaningless and humiliating tricks - they've simply learned to fear what will happen if they don't," said Jason Baker, animal rights group PETA's vice president of international campaigns.
There are about 1,200 macaques on the small island, where vaccine experiments were once carried out by Soviet scientists before it was transformed into a tourist attraction in the 1990s.