St. Kitts & Nevis Monkey Task Force

Over the years, the African vervet monkeys have raked havoc in the country of St. Kitts and Nevis. Having been in the country since the 16th century due to slavery and colonisation in the West Indies, there have been numerous policies over the years to try and control the primate population; from shooting the monkeys, to sterilisation them to consuming them in the form of a delicacy called tree mutton. Still, these monkeys have economical value as they contributed to tourism and have been used in medical research field to create vaccination for multiple virus that plague the human race. Nevertheless, these monkeys have created numerous problems on the West Indian country; the most notably is the agricultural sector where farmers have reported that hundreds of thousands of dollars have been lost to the monkeys. This led to the formation of the St. Kitts and Nevis Monkey Task Force whose aim is to control the pest population. The podcast spoke to Dr. Kerry Dore, biological anthropologist; human-primate conflict and ethnoprimatology expert and national co-ordinator of the St. Kitts and Nevis Invasive Species Project and a member of the Task Force, on the efforts of the island to control the monkey population.