Trio of monkeys nonetheless on the free after escaping journey crates in Mississippi

Three analysis monkeys are nonetheless on the free after a truck carrying the primates going from Louisiana to Florida overturned in Mississippi on Tuesday afternoon.

After the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department initially mentioned that each one however one of many escaped rhesus macaque monkeys had been “destroyed” on account of regulation enforcement’s understanding that the species was harmful and carrying illnesses, Sheriff Randy Johnson reported a miscount.

He initially mentioned a complete of 21 monkeys had been on the truck and 6 had gotten free. Deputies then shot and killed 5 of the monkeys after the truck’s driver informed them the monkeys posed a menace to people. Upon animal specialists from Tulane University, the place the monkeys had been touring from, arriving to the scene Tuesday night, it was confirmed that three are nonetheless roaming the world.

On Wednesday morning, Tulane launched an announcement reiterating that the monkeys should not carrying illnesses and that the college didn’t personal the monkeys or play a task within the transportation of them to a testing facility in Florida. The monkeys had been being housed on the Tulane National Biomedical Center in Covington, La., which is about 40 miles north of the principle campus in New Orleans.

“Nonhuman primates at the Tulane National Biomedical Center are provided to other research organizations to advance scientific discovery,” the assertion, partly, reads. “The nonhuman primates in query weren’t carrying any illnesses and had acquired latest checkups confirming they had been pathogen-free.

“Although Tulane did not transport or own the nonhuman primates at the time of the incident, we sent a team of animal care experts to assist in this tragic accident.”

The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks confirmed Wednesday afternoon that conservation officers from the state company are nonetheless on the scene and serving to examine the matter.

“[MDWFP] is coordinating with local authorities in Jasper County following reports of Rhesus Macaques on the loose,” an announcement reads. “MDWFP Conservation Officers remain on site and are actively coordinating with the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department as part of the ongoing investigation.”

MDWFP additionally suggested the general public to “avoid any contact” with monkeys and to not strategy them if noticed. Rather, credible sitings might be turned in to regulation enforcement or the state company.

It stays unclear who owns the monkeys, who was transporting them and the place precisely they had been being taken. The Jasper County Sheriff’s Department, which initially mentioned the monkeys had been en path to a Florida testing facility, is anticipated to carry a press convention in some unspecified time in the future this week.

In an unrelated incident final 12 months, 43 rhesus monkeys escaped from a breeding facility in South Carolina. It took authorities two months to recapture them by tempting them with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.