With the tourists gone, what now for Lopburi’s famous monkeys? | Thailand

Food vendors in the Thai city of Lopburi can never let down their guard. Thieves are everywhere, and they are both nimble and brazen. “It’s almost every day that they take my mango and santol,” says Pan Pookyoo, who has sold fruit on the streets of Lopburi for more than three decades. “Sometimes they come and stash the peanuts,” she adds, gesturing to the vendor opposite, whose buckets of nuts and beans are subjected to frequent raids.

“They take anything they can,” agrees Somsaksri Janhon, another seller. Even his stall of hair accessories is not spared. “The comb, the mirror,” he says. “If I leave the food unattended they steal the food as well.”

As he speaks, a long, brown tail dangles from the market’s metal rooftop.

Lopburi, in central Thailand, is overrun with macaques – and managing their presence has only become more challenging in the wake of the…