AR-News: (US) 50-pound baboon gets loose at the zoo

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    50-pound baboon gets loose at the zoo

By James Goodman 
Staff Writer 

(May 27, 2004) — Just how one of the 15 Anubis baboons on loan to the Seneca Park Zoo got loose Wednesday morning is still under investigation.
But what is known is that at about 7 a.m. a security guard found a 50-pound baboon — the largest of the males on loan here through September— outside his exhibit area, in a nearby fenced-in zookeeper area.

The baboon, which does not have a name, was sitting next to the chute that connects a caged housing area inside a barn with a 12-foot-high, fenced-in exhibit area, which has electrified wires that are supposed to shock a baboon trying to escape. 

”He was touching his mates and was very calm,” said Dr. Jeff Wyatt, veterinarian for the zoo.

No one was hurt and the opening of the zoo, normally at 10 a.m., was delayed by about 10 minutes.

But getting the baboon back into its exhibit area was no easy task. It took more than two hours.

Wyatt tried to anesthetize the baboon with a tranquilizer dart; but instead of falling asleep, the baboon climbed a tall oak tree in the zookeeper area.

“He seemed most interested in staying away from me and getting back to his troop,” Wyatt said.

The baboon, Wyatt noted, communicated with his mates by making a barking sound — and they barked back.

Wyatt said that it was only after he stepped back that the baboon, not eager to be the target of another tranquilizer dart, came down and ventured back into the exhibit area.

Shaunta Collier-Santos, spokeswoman for the zoo, said that zoo officials are trying to figure out how the baboon got out and are taking additional precautions. “We’ll be adding more wire near the top and at corners of the 12-foot fence,” she said.

The baboons are on loan from International Animal Exchange in Port Clinton, Ohio.

Wednesday’s escape came about nine months after Lowell the orangutan ventured out of his cage at the zoo. That escape also ended peacefully, but not before the orangutan picked up a volunteer who had been cleaning in the area. 

JGOODMAN at DemocratandChronicle.com

Staff writer Jeffrey Blackwell contributed to this report.