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To an endangered animal, a zoo is supposed to offer sanctuary.A macaque monkey may even consider itself fortunate to live in one - safe from poachers and predators.Fortunate, that is, until the rare Indonesian animal falls foul of Newquay Zoo's strict approach to cage discipline.Animal charities and conservationists condemned the 'awful' decision to kill two adult male monkeys who behaved aggressively.

The two rare macaques Venus and Ia were killed because the zoo could not find a place for them
Venus and Ia were put down by lethal injection despite being members of the most endangered species of macaque - there are just 100,000 in the entire world.Keepers at the Cornish zoo say they killed two of their three male macaques because they could neither live together or be found new homes.But the decision was slammed as 'unacceptable' after it emerged that a nearby monkey refuge had not even been contacted about the problem.Matt Thomas, a keeper at The Monkey Sanctuary in Looe - just 40 miles away from the zoo - said: "They never contacted us."What they have done is horrendous and would not happen here. It would never be considered."There are other options and places which could have taken these animals on."Another keeper, Rachael Hevesi, added: "Our staff would have been willing to help to find a suitable place for the monkeys - but they did not ask us. I am very saddened and shocked."
The macaques cannot be kept alongside other monkeys because of their agressive nature
The pair of male Sulawesi black crested macaques were two of three males kept in their own enclosure at the zoo where the mission statement describes it as a "charity dedicated to conserving our global wildlife heritage and inspiring [...] a life long respect for animals and the environment."The pair initially lived harmoniously with the zoo's other male macaque but later became aggressive and started to fight.Director of the zoo, Stewart Muir, said efforts to find a new home for one or both monkeys had failed.He defended the decision to put the animals down, saying "The male Sulawesi macaques can be very aggressive towards each other."This resulted in us having to separate permanently one animal. This could not continue as primates should never be kept alone."Sulawesi black crested macaques are an endangered species so the enclosure at Newquay Zoo is valuable to the future breeding and long term survival of this species."He continued: "No suitable home could be found in any other zoo or sanctuary. "We had to look at the long term welfare of the animals and what would happen if they fought or one died, leaving one permanently on its own."After looking long and hard at the situation and much soul searching, we came to the conclusion that we could not re-home these two males and guarantee their long term health and welfare."The only option left open to us was to put them to sleep."This will give us the opportunity to bring in young females to join our breeding male, so we can continue with this much needed breeding programme."It is an incredibly hard decision to make and we all feel very sad at the turn of events, but we are dedicated to the long term conservation of this species and hope that with the introduction of breeding females we can help play an active part in securing the species futuresurvival."Keepers say it would have been impossible the separate the animals as they must live in groups and cannot be housed in isolation.The crested black macaque is found on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia and is threatened by over hunting for food where its meat is considered a delicacy.Its habitat is also threatened by human settlement, land clearing for agriculture and logging.Macaques are social creatures and were often seen in groups of 100 or more before their decline in the wild.They feed on fruit, vegetation, insects and small animals such as mice, crabs and lizards and interact by grooming each other and communicating vocally with grunts.It is classified as endangered on the world conservation union's red list and listed on appendix II of convention on international trade in endangered species.