Pata Zoo is offering a reward of 100,000 baht for information leading to the arrest of five animal-rights activists it accuses of defacing private property by painting slogans on the exterior wall of Pata Pinklao department store last week, calling on the store to release the gorilla from the zoo inside.

Little can be done about the 33-year-old gorilla who lives in a small cage in a Bangkok shopping mall if the owner refuses to let go, the authorities say.