Zoo lockdown over after escaped monkey is captured

by | Feb 19, 2009

KING 5 reports that Woodland Park Zoo was on lockdown this morning after a DeBrazza monkey escaped from his outdoor exhibit. Zoo staff escorted visitors out as a precaution and set up a safe perimeter. The lockdown ended at about 11:30 a.m.
Update 3 p.m.: This is a picture of Riktus from yesterday, which was his first day in the outside enclosure. (Photo by Erin Sullivan/Woodland Park Zoo.)

According to a press release from the zoo, Riktus is a 12-year-old male DeBrazza’s guenon, a type of African monkey.

He jumped across the perimeter of the Tropical Rain Forest exhibit at approximately 10:40 this morning. Within the 45 minute incident, the 12-year-old monkey was tranquilized by the zoo’s animal management staff in the vicinity of the African Village exhibit at approximately 11:15 a.m. and then safely secured.
Guests were immediately evacuated from the area and escorted to secured buildings on zoo grounds by the zoo’s emergency response team. The zoo’s perimeter was locked-down for safety and reopened after the animal was secured. No guests, staff or animals were injured during the incident.
The animal had been at the zoo since May 2008, but was just being introduced for the first time to its outdoor exhibit this week, located in the zoo’s award-winning Tropical Rain Forest. It was his second day in the exhibit.

He’s now back in his behind-the-scenes holding area, while zoo staff assesses the exhibit and makes any necessary modifications.

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