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New Mystery Death of Hong Kong Monkey Takes Zoo Toll to 9

Monkeys are pictured outside the Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple in Dambulla on October 14, 2024. (Photo by Ishara S. KODIKARA / AFP)
Monkeys are pictured outside the Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple in Dambulla on October 14, 2024. (Photo by Ishara S. KODIKARA / AFP)
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New Mystery Death of Hong Kong Monkey Takes Zoo Toll to 9

Monkeys are pictured outside the Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple in Dambulla on October 14, 2024. (Photo by Ishara S. KODIKARA / AFP)
Monkeys are pictured outside the Rangiri Dambulla Cave Temple in Dambulla on October 14, 2024. (Photo by Ishara S. KODIKARA / AFP)

Zoo authorities in Hong Kong are keeping close watch on a monkey that is behaving unusually a day after the ninth death this week of one of the animals, while hastening tests to find out what killed them.
During the monitoring, the city's Zoological and Botanical Gardens (HKZBG) will keep shut its mammals section, after having closed it for disinfection and cleaning on Monday, Reuters reported.
"Government departments will speed up autopsy and toxicological testing," the government said in a statement, as they scramble to pinpoint the cause of the deaths.
The ninth monkey, belonging to the white-faced saki species, died a day after Sunday's deaths of a De Brazza’s monkey, a common squirrel monkey, three cotton-top tamarins and three white-faced sakis, it added.
Authorities will also keep watching the status of a De Brazza's monkey that has displayed unusual movement response and appetite since Monday, it said.
Built in 1860, the territory's oldest park houses about 158 birds, 80 mammals and 21 reptiles in roughly 40 enclosures.
"The health conditions of all 80 animals in the HKZBG are normal," the government said, while officials held an urgent meeting on Tuesday.
Animal welfare group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said the incident raised concerns about the risks of outbreaks of diseases such as monkeypox that can jump to humans from animals.

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Mussels Invade Swiss Lakes, Coating Fishing Nets and Threatening Wildlife

Invasive Quagga mussels cover a pipe in Lake Leman in Rivaz near Geneva, Switzerland, September 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Invasive Quagga mussels cover a pipe in Lake Leman in Rivaz near Geneva, Switzerland, September 20, 2024. (Reuters)
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Mussels Invade Swiss Lakes, Coating Fishing Nets and Threatening Wildlife

Invasive Quagga mussels cover a pipe in Lake Leman in Rivaz near Geneva, Switzerland, September 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Invasive Quagga mussels cover a pipe in Lake Leman in Rivaz near Geneva, Switzerland, September 20, 2024. (Reuters)

Fisherman Claude Delley rattles the metal frame of his net against the side of his boat on Switzerland's Lake Neuchatel, trying to shake off dozens of tiny, brown mussels.

Some plop back into the water but most stay put. The sharp shells of the creatures - a fast-spreading, invasive species originally from the Black Sea - work away at the netting, meaning he has to replace it twice as often as before.

"There is no solution," he said. "As soon as the mussel clings to the net, it stays there."

It is not just the nets. The Quagga mussels have clogged up underwater pipelines. Stéphan Jacquet, one of a team of researchers studying the species, said he had seen Swiss native crayfish, whose population is in decline, encrusted in the creatures, threatening suffocation.

The mussels also consume huge amounts of microscopic plants called phytoplankton, leaving less for other lake creatures to eat.

"Potentially all biological categories and major links in the food chain can be impacted," Jacquet, who works at the INRAE CARRTEL laboratory further south in Thonon-les-Bains, said.

The mussels were first detected in Switzerland in the River Rhine near Basel in 2014. Since then, they have spread to colonize at least six Swiss lakes including Lake Geneva.

The population, which has few predators, is poised to multiply up to 20 times in Switzerland in the next two decades, according to a 2023 study by aquatic research institute Eawag and Swiss universities based on trends seen in the Great Lakes of the United States since the 1980s.

The mussels are already present in France and Germany.

It is not known exactly how each lake was invaded, but mussel larvae can spread on rivers or currents and be introduced into new bodies of water when boats or equipment are moved.

Once in, the species multiplies rapidly with one individual capable of producing hundreds of thousands of larvae.

"When we look underwater, we can see that it has an exponential colonization, very significant, as these ecosystems are now completely covered, from the surface to the depths," Jacquet said.

Some Swiss lakes have been spared, including Lake Zurich and Lake Lucerne. In some places, authorities are now considering new rules for cleaning and shipping boats to stop the spread.