Several monkeys died after jumping into an abandoned water tank in search of food and getting trapped inside.<br /><br />The primates had been suffering due to a decline in tourists - who would normally feed them - due to the coronavirus pandemic preventing travel. <br /><br />When they found the abandoned water tank, the excited mammals and believed to have dived in to eat scraps and have a drink.<br /><br />However, the depth made it hard for them to climb out of the tank again and they were trapped at the bottom.<br /><br />A resident found the wild monkeys at the public park in Songkhla, southern Thailand on Wednesday evening (June 3).<br /><br />The local said he had already heard a monkey screaming a couple of days before but thought nothing of it.<br /><br />When he finally looked, he found two abandoned water tanks that smelled bad because of the dead animals. He climbed up to check and found a group of monkeys inside the tank.<br /><br />The local then laid a long log down into the tank so that some of the monkeys that were still alive could escape. Some of them died later due to exhaustion.<br /><br />Professor Wanyanee Suwanchatri from the Prince of Songkla University said she believed that the absence of tourists caused the deaths of the monkeys.<br /><br />She said: "I visited the area immediately after I was informed about the deaths of the monkeys.<br /><br />"I think the monkeys have gone into the water tanks because they were thirsty and starving as normally they were fed by the tourists."<br /><br />Professor Wanyanee added that the provincial government will take care of retrieving the dead monkeys and will find a way to ease their starvation.<br /><br />She said: "I have already reported this matter to the government office and they promised to help retrieve the bodies and find food for the surviving monkeys."
