The Primate Research Institute, a facility run by Kyoto University’s research wing, is one of the most high-profile laboratories in the world. It is home to 80 monkeys, which are used in all sorts of experiments. To keep the monkeys in, the research facility is surrounded by a 17-foot-high electric fence. Needless to say, no monkey has ever even tried to escape, until now, when 15 monkeys used tree branches to catapult themselves over the wall to freedom!
“It was an incredible escape and the first time something like this has ever happened,” said Hirohisa Hirai, deputy head of the Institute. “We think that maybe there was some kind of dispute among the monkeys in the forest and so this group decided to leave. Fortunately, they stayed by the fence after escaping as they probably wanted to stay near to the other monkeys so we managed to recapture them all. But we were extremely surprised by the intelligence and the power they used in order to escape.”
Researchers were able to lure the escaped monkeys back into the fold with peanuts. Once all the apes were recovered, they cut down the trees used to facilitate the Great Ape Escape. As for the monkey disagreement, hopefully they’ve agreed to some kind of mediation. You hate to see these problems spiral out of control.
Tags: monkeys, unusual animals, monkeys escape from a research facility, monkeys learn to catapult themselves to escape laboratory, Hirohisa Hirai, Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Aichi prefecture, Japan
