3 monkeys still on the loose after truck overturns on Mississippi highway
HEIDELBERG, Miss. (AP) — Three monkeys were still on the loose Wednesday in Mississippi after a truck carrying the research animals overturned.
Officials said midday Tuesday that all but one of the escaped Rhesus monkeys had been killed, but Jasper County Sheriff’s Department later said officials from Tulane University, which had been housing the monkeys, got into the trailer Tuesday evening and determined that three monkeys had escaped.
Contrary to initial reports from the occupants of the transport truck, who warned that the monkeys were dangerous and infected with various diseases, Tulane officials said the monkeys were not infectious, Sheriff Randy Johnson said in a news release. The monkeys still needed to be “neutralized” because of their aggressive nature, Johnson said.
The truck was carrying Rhesus monkeys, which typically weigh about 16 pounds (8 kilograms) and are among the most medically studied animals on the planet. It isn’t clear how many monkeys were on the truck, who owned them, who was transporting them, or where they were being taken and for what purpose.
The monkeys were being housed at the Tulane University National Biomedical Research Center, which routinely provides primates to scientific research organizations, according to the New Orleans school. In a statement, Tulane said the university doesn’t own the monkeys and wasn’t transporting them.
Video shows monkeys crawling through tall grass on the side of Interstate 59 just north of Heidelberg, Mississippi, with wooden crates labeled “live animals” crumpled and strewn about.
University officials will be in the area looking for the missing monkeys, the sheriff said. All other monkeys were being transported back to a facility in Louisiana.
If anyone sees monkeys, they should call the authorities and shouldn’t approach the animals, the sheriff’s office warned.
The crash happened about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the state capital, Jackson. It isn’t clear what caused the truck to overturn.
