South Carolina research facility recovers 1 of 43 escaped monkeys
DREW MARTIN / THE STATE via TNS / SEPT. 20
An infant rhesus macaque is held by an adult as photographed on Morgan Island, in Beaufort County, S.C., in September. The island and its 3,000 monkeys are managed by Yemassee’s Alpha Genesis for the National Institutes of Health.
COLUMBIA, S.C. >> After 43 monkeys escaped from a South Carolina research facility this week, one has been recovered, the Yemassee Police Department announced today. The animal was unharmed.
The animals escaped an enclosure on Thursday when an employee doing routine cleaning and feeding failed to secure two doors behind her.
The rest of the 42 primates are still roaming free just a few yards from Alpha Genesis’ property, swinging from the trees and jumping back and forth over the facility’s fence.
Facility staff are on-site, feeding and monitoring the animals, police said, which is a good sign.
Police are urging the public to refrain from entering the area surrounding the facility in Yemassee because the monkeys are easily startled.
Alpha Genesis CEO Greg Westergaard said that efforts to recover all the animals will continue throughout the weekend and for as long as it takes.
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Alpha Genesis uses the monkeys for biomedical research.
Westergaard told The Hilton Head Island Packet that if they can’t lure the monkeys with food, they will eventually use tranquilizing darts.
“We love the monkeys,” Westergaard said. “I’m just hoping we can get them back passively.”
The escaped primates do not pose a public health risk, police say.
It is not the first time monkeys have been loose in Yemassee, where there are more primates than people within the town limits. In 2014, 45 monkeys escaped.
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This story was distributed by the Tribune Content Agency.
