Sometimes a small mistake can unleash a nightmare on the world.
One town became the scene for a scenario out of a horror movie.
And a scary mistake at a research lab let something awful escape that terrorized a small town.
More than 40 research monkeys escape from a lab in South Carolina
43 Rhesus macaque monkeys escaped from the Alpha Genesis Primate Research Center in Yemassee, South Carolina.
The monkeys were being used in medical research at the lab.
A member of the facility’s staff failed to secure the enclosure the monkeys were being kept in, which allowed them to escape into a wooded area near the research center.
Yemassee residents were urged to lock their windows and doors and avoid contact with the monkeys.
“These animals are highly sensitive and easily startled, we recommend that the public avoid the area to prevent frightening them further,” the Yemassee police said in a statement. “The staff at Alpha Genesis are currently attempting to entice the animals back using food in order to ensure their safe capture.”
Alpha Genesis employees set traps using an apple as bait for the escaped primates.
The Rhesus macaque monkeys were all females that weighed about seven pounds and the police claimed they were too young to be at risk of carrying any disease.
“The incident yesterday involved a new enclosure, and occurred because the caretaker who was doing routine cleaning and feeding failed to secure two separate doors. It was purely human error,” Alpha Genesis CEO Greg Westergaard told NBC News.
Westergaard called the situation “frustrating” trying to track down the escaped monkeys.
“It’s really like follow the leader. You see one go and the others go,” Westergaard explained. “It was a group of 50 and seven stayed behind and 43 bolted out the door.”
Alpha Genesis also has 3,500 monkeys on an island off the coast of South Carolina known as monkey island for research contracts with the federal government.
Westergaard said that most of the primates stayed close to the research facility.
“They’re just being goofy monkeys jumping back and forth playing with each other,” Westergaard said. “It’s kind of like a playground situation here.”
The monkeys are smarter than anyone realized
More than 30 of the monkeys have been captured but it’s been hard work rounding them up.
They’ve been able to extract the apples and food from the traps without being caught.
“They’re jumping down and taking the food and then jumping back up on the fence and the tree line,” Westergaard explained. “They’re watching us the same way we’re watching them.”
He admitted that it would be a long, slow process to nab the remaining monkeys.
“We’ve got them very close,” Westergaard stated. “This is all like what we want to see.”
The monkeys were seen in the woods near the facility darting back and forth.
After days of searching, officials have captured one of the 43 Rhesus macaque monkeys that escaped from the Alpha Genesis research facility.
They are very close the the facility as they are now seen “jumping back and forth” over the fence.
🐒 42 more to capture! pic.twitter.com/zoDIbgAJAP
— Ms_Harmony ツ (@Ms_Harmony58) November 10, 2024
All of the monkeys that have been captured are in good health.
This isn’t the first time that monkeys have escaped from the Alpha Genesis facility.
In 2019, a group of 19 monkeys escaped the facility but they were all rounded up after six hours.
Police and residents will have to be patient while Alpha Genesis tries to round up the remaining primates.