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

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.

Officials said the primates are expected to be treated and freed into the wild. The monkeys would have fetched RM380,000 on the black market.

Dubbed the "monkey farm" by the plantation's operators, the monkeys were crammed into small cages and starved to the point that they were resorting to cannibalism, the report said.

Some of the monkeys were seen chewing the bloody stumps of their wrists while some had taken to eating the carcasses of their infants. There were also at least 100 rotting dead monkeys, according to the dispatch.

Slaughtered exotic animals

In the northern Perlis state, bordering Thailand, enforcement officials on Saturday foiled an attempt to smuggle slaughtered exotic animals, including 15 monitor lizards, for restaurants in Thailand.

On April 26 the Malaysian authorities caught an Indian national for attempting to smuggle 385 endangered Indian Star tortoises at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Wildlife officials said in May that criminal gangs were using Malaysia as a hub for exporting millions of dollars worth of wildlife for the Chinese market.

The officials said trafficking of wildlife had hit alarming levels in Malaysia, which also played the role of source and consumer.