Secure doors and windows. That was the message police in Yemassee, South Carolina, sent residents last Wednesday evening after over forty monkeys escaped the nearby Alpha Genesis research facility. By the next morning, the state was abuzz with the news of the fugitive primates, and now, a week later, with eleven of the animals remaining in the woods, the ongoing saga has caught the attention of the world.
But this isn’t the first time monkeys have escaped the facility. In fact, it’s hard to find a major primate research center in the South that hasn’t experienced a similar debacle. Here are a few of those stories.
Yemassee, South Carolina, 2014 and 2016
Ten years ago, twenty-six macaques fled the very same research facility behind last week’s incident, Alpha Genesis. All were recaptured within two days, one with a severely wounded hand that required finger amputation. Just a week later, another individual primate escaped into the woods, never to be found. Could it still be out there today? “The Southeast United States is actually a really great habitat for them because there are lots of food resources and not a lot of competition,” says Jane Anderson, a primate researcher who studied Florida’s rhesus macaque population at the University of Florida.
Then, again, eight years ago, nineteen more monkeys escaped from Alpha Genesis. These animals were successfully lured into traps and recaptured within a few hours, but the facility was later fined more than $12,000 for ethical violations, including negligence.
Atlanta, Georgia, 2011
Emory University’s world-renowned primate research center is tucked into a woodsy Northeast Atlanta neighborhood. If the monkey calls residents hear in the early mornings aren’t enough of a reminder that they are surrounded by thousands of primates, the escape of a rhesus macaque known as EP13 drove home the point. Neighbors were quick to take issue with the facility’s lack of immediate disclosure about EP13 being on the loose. A search for the monkey ensued and lasted nearly two months before being called off without ever finding her.
Covington, Louisiana, 1998, 2003, and 2005
In what has been dubbed the “Great Monkey Escape of 1998,” twenty-four rhesus macaques fled one of the nation’s largest primate research institutions, the Tulane University Regional Primate Center. The animals loosened the gate of their outdoor enclosure and slipped through, but they were all recaptured within a few days—or so the facility thought. A resident later spotted a lone monkey roaming the surrounding forest. “That call caused us to recount, and it was true, a monkey was missing,” center director Dr. Peter Gerone told a New Orleans publication at the time. The monkey was recaptured, but another two dozen escaped the center in 2003, followed by another fifty in 2005. At least four of the monkeys were never found.
San Antonio, Texas, 2018
Six years ago, four baboons took “monkeys in a barrel” to a new level when they climbed atop one to escape their enclosure at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute. One of the baboons apparently had second thoughts and returned, but the other three roamed San Antonio—one was even spotted walking along a street—before eventually being returned within a few hours.
Silver Springs, Florida, 1938
Although the two hundred or so rhesus macaques that inhabit Florida’s Silver Springs State Park are not the products of an escape event, their story is fascinating—and shows the consequences of underestimating the scrappy survivors. Almost a century ago, a commercial riverboat captain brought six of the monkeys to a tiny island in Florida’s Silver River, with the hope of creating a tourist attraction. What he didn’t factor in is that macaques are excellent swimmers, and they quickly spread to the neighboring islands. Over the years, around a thousand of the primates have been removed from the area, although a large population of the macaques remains there and continues to breed today.
So, as wild as it seems for monkeys to be on the lam in South Carolina, the latest incident is part of a long line of similar mishaps. And with a lifespan of more than thirty years, the AWOL macaques could do real damage to the environment as they consume native species and potentially leave behind bacteria like E.coli (as a managed colony on a nearby South Carolina island has done).
And to borrow Michael Crichton’s famous line, life may find a way with Yemassee’s all-female troupe of missing monkeys. “We’ve seen evidence of males spreading all over Florida, and there was actually a macaque observed in southern Georgia a few years ago,” Anderson says. “So I wouldn’t say it’s completely out of the realm of possibility that at some point there could be an adult male macaque around.”
For now, as long as the monkeys are still out there, officials and Anderson are urging people not to go near them. “I have nothing but respect and admiration for rhesus macaques,” she says. “They are incredible animals. However, if someone comes across one, they should absolutely keep their distance. They’re incredibly food-aggressive. Don’t go try to check them out. It can be perceived as a threat to the animals, and people can get really hurt.”
