25 of 43 escaped monkeys in Yemassee are back at Alpha Genesis. Are the primates ok?
As of 5 p.m. Sunday, 25 of the 43 escaped primates that fled through open security doors from Alpha Genesis in Yemassee, South Carolina had been recovered, according to town administrator Matthew Garnes.
Greg Westergaard, the CEO of Alpha Genesis, a monkey breeding and research facility confirmed with the town that, more than two dozen of the missing 43 primates have been successfully recovered. A large group of the monkeys are still active along the fence line and have settled into the trees for yet another night.
According to Garnes, veterinarians conducted wellness exams throughout the day for the recovered monkeys, and their initial reports indicate that the animals are “in good health.”
How did this start?
Around 9 p.m. Wednesday, 43 adolescent, female rhesus macaque monkeys escaped from an enclosure at the facility when an employee doing routine cleaning and feeding failed to secure two doors behind her, according to Westergaard.
On Saturday, one of the monkeys returned, and by Sunday, 24 more monkeys had joined her, according to Garnes.
In 2014, 26 monkeys escaped from the facility. Nineteen more monkeys escaped in 2016. In his time working as town administrator, Garnes said Thursday, all of the escaped monkeys had been captured.
The approach that the facility is taking to capture the monkeys, Westergaard said Friday, is to leave them alone and hope they return on their own. They have deployed “have a heart” traps to try and capture the monkeys humanely. But if the monkeys are not caught in the traps or refuse to come back on their own, they will be shot with tranquilizing darts, he said.
