Authorities in Puerto Rico are using cages and mangos to try to trap hundreds of marauding monkeys _ descendants of escaped research animals _ and hope to send them off to sanctuaries or labs, or to kill them.

Since the first eight traps were set out two weeks ago, the primates have snatched the bait and eluded capture in traps set by Puerto Rico's natural resources agency _ drawing ridicule from local farmers who blame the monkeys for devastating melon, pepper and pumpkin crops over the last decade.