KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian wildlife officials rescued 950 monkeys taken by poachers and destined for cooking pots in China and laboratories in the Netherlands, a report said on Tuesday.

Wildlife officials also arrested four men aged between 32 and 51, including an Indonesian, after discovering some of the long-tailed macaques in tiny cages in a plantation in southern Johor state.

Celesoriano Razond, the deputy director of the law and enforcement unit, said the monkeys were caught in central Pahang state and Johor. “The primates had been caught in the wild and were to be smuggled to restaurants in China and laboratories in Holland ...,” the New Straits Times newspaper said.

The report described the seizure of the monkeys as the biggest so far.—AFP