South Carolina town with escaped monkeys on the loose sets up ‘no drone zone’ to avoid spooking primates
A South Carolina town remains remains in lockdown as officials try to catch over a dozen lab monkeys still on the loose.
So far 25 of the 43 primates have been captured after escaping a research facility dubbed the ‘monkey farm’ near the small town of Yemassee, which is less than 50 miles from Charleston.
Residents are being urged to continue locking their doors and windows while local authorities try to lure the animals using food and traps.
Police also issued a stern order against using drones in the area, after a remotely operated craft spooked a monkey that the researchers were attempting to capture.
The animals are easily frightened, and if they run away, it makes catching them later much harder, Dr Greg Westergaard, the CEO of the facility, called Alpha Genesis, said.
The six-pound rhesus macaques have taken up residence in the forest bordering the facility, cooing at their fellow primates across the fence and jumping from tree to tree.
Dr Westergaard said the monkeys are all young and healthy, and have yet to be tested on, so they pose no threat to humans.
Still, the Yemassee Police Department cautioned against approaching the monkeys, and urged citizens to call 911 if they spot one.
They recommend steering clear of the forested area around the facility, where the remaining monkeys seem to be camped out.
The facility, which houses more than a thousand monkeys, is based on the edge of the town of Yemassee – 50 miles west of Charleston
Dr Westergaard said capturing the animals could take a while, because they can’t chase the monkeys, since that would scare them.
Instead, they’ve been leaving trails of fruit to entice the macaques to walk into traps that close behind them. But 18 remain on the loose.
This isn’t the first time monkeys have escaped from the Alpha Genesis lab. In 2016, 19 monkeys broke out of the research center, but they were recaptured within the day.
In 2014, 26 monkey escaped and recaptured within a few days, earning Alpha Genesis a $12,600 slap on the wrist of the US Department of Agriculture.
And there were six escape events in 2022 alone.
A local resident recalled these former escapes on X, saying: ‘The monkeys escape from Yemassee every year. That s*** happens every year! The workers forget to lock up the cages and they go crazy!’
Charlotte Murray, a local business owner told DailyMail.com that people have been more fearful of the monkeys during this breakout than in previous years.
Murray said: ‘The center normally does a great job during escapes, but this is the first time that I remember that they have asked people to keep doors and windows locked. That is a shift.’
Right now, there are several thousand monkeys at this facility on over 100 acres of land. It’s one of the largest monkey-testing facilities in the nation.
This time around, the monkeys escaped after a worker shut but forgot to lock a door to their enclosure.
Dr Westergaard said the primates likely leaned on the door, opening it. Once one realized it could leave, a whole group followed suit.
Residents in Yemassee, a town of 1,000 less than 50 miles west of Charleston, have been told to lock their doors and windows to prevent the primates from entering their homes
The rhesus macaques that escaped from the facility are all juvenile females, weighing about six or seven pounds, roughly the same size as a house cat. The macaque pictured is an adult in India, not from the Alpha Genesis facility
Dr Westergaard told CBS News: ‘It’s really like follow-the-leader. You see one go and the others go’.
The unnamed employee is reportedly ‘on disciplinary action’ at this time.
The group that mounted the heist was all young females who have never been used in testing. They are too young to carry disease, and don’t pose a threat to humans.
Veterinarians have been dispatched to the area to perform additional wellness checks on the monkey’s still at large, and the police department announced that they seem to be in good condition.
The Yemassee Police Department has been providing periodic updates on the status of the monkeys. A November 7th update reported: ‘These animals are highly sensitive and easily startled, we recommend that the public to avoid the area to prevent frightening them further.’
At the facility, Alpha Genesis breeds, raises and performs test on primates – including rhesus macaques and capuchin monkeys.
The monkeys have been used to research everything from Alzheimer’s disease to the Zika virus.
The company’s website reports that they are used in vaccine development and virus research, and they also sell blood, cells and plasma from the primates to other researchers.
