Yahoo News Watch: Four baboons escape animal research centre after propping barrel against wall
This is the moment a group of baboons escaped their enclosure at a research facility after propping up a barrel against the wall and climbing to freedom.
One of the four primates was seen running along the side of the road in San Antonio, having escaped from the Texas Biomedical Research Institute.
People can be seen running after a baboon as they tried to round it up and bring it back to its enclosure.
The animals propped up barrels against the walls of their home and used them to jump over the fence before escaping the centre perimeter entirely.
One of the escapees returned to the pen, that houses some 1,100 baboons, of its own accord while the other three made a run for it.
However, the three remaining primates were recaptured within half an hour.
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Researchers said in a statement that the baboons were given the barrels as an ‘enrichment tool’ that would help them mimic foraging as they would in the wild.
However, the barrels have now been removed to stop any more daring escapes.
Lisa Cruz, assistant vice president for communications at the Southwest National Primate Research Centre, that is part of the institute, said: ‘We have nearly 1,100 baboons on the property that date back eight generations.
‘Baboons, as with all our animals, are critical to biomedical research.’
The baboons that escaped were reportedly not part of any infectious disease research or active study.
