1 escaped monkey captured in South Carolina, several others ...
"She is well and having a peanut butter and jelly sandwich."
November 9, 2024, 4:33 PM
The ongoing operation to capture 43 monkeys that escaped from a South Carolina lab nabbed at least one of the furry runaways on Saturday, according to officials.
Officials in the town of Yemasee said they recovered overnight one of the rhesus macaque monkeys that had escaped from Alpha Genesis Primate Research Center on Wednesday.
"She is well and having a peanut butter and jelly sandwich," Alpha Genesis CEO Greg Westergaard said in a statement.
In this Sept. 20, 2024, file photo, an infant rhesus macaque is held by an adult on Morgan Island, in Beaufort County, South Carolina, just north of St. Helena Island. The island and its 3,000 monkeys are managed by Yemassee's Alpha Genesis for the National Institutes of Health.
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Yemasee officials said that "a significant number" of the escaped primates were located in a facility near where the rescued animal was found and were "jumping back and forth over the facility's fence."
"Alpha Genesis management and staff are on-site, actively feeding and monitoring the animals, and they will continue these efforts throughout the weekend," the town's officials said in a statement.
"The primates continue to interact with their companions inside the facility, which is a positive sign," they added.
A view of the cages in the research facility where forty-three rhesus macaque monkeys escaped from in Yemassee, South Carolina, on Nov. 8, 2024.
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Westergaard said the monkeys were having a nap Saturday afternoon.
"They are coming down to the ground a bit more now. It is a slow process," he said.
The creatures escaped when a new employee at the Alpha Genesis center left the door to their enclosure open, Yemassee Town Administrator Matthew Garnes said during a briefing Thursday with town officials.
A view from outside of the research facility where forty-three rhesus macaque monkeys escaped from in Yemassee, South Carolina, on Nov. 8, 2024.
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The primates are all very young females weighing 6 to 7 pounds each who have never been tested, according to police. There is no public health threat, police said.
ABC News' Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.
