Escape from Monkey Mountain: 9 macaques make a run for it at zoo in southwest China
Wily ringleader shows the way out in breakout at Yunnan province’s Kunming Zoo
A group of nine monkeys have broken out of their compound at a zoo in southwest China, a Chinese newspaper reported.
A rhesus macaque led eight of his fellows to jump over a four metre wide ditch around their hill enclosure at the Kunming Zoo, in Yunnan province, on Saturday, according to the Chuncheng Wanbao.
The macaques had only been in the enclosure for 10 days. They were part of a group of 30 that the zoo brought from neighbouring Guizhou province last year.
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The simian escapees were seen walking about and climbing trees elsewhere in the zoo grounds.
Zoo visitors who witnessed their escape said “the monkeys jumped as if they were flying” when they crossed the moat surrounding the hill.
Staff at the zoo said the monkeys may have escaped because they had yet to adapt to the new living environment.
They would not rush to recapture the animals and return them to the hill.
