YEMASSEE, S.C. — Authorities in South Carolina announced on Friday that they have successfully recaptured the final four out of 43 monkeys that had escaped two months earlier and lived in the wilderness, navigating through a rare snowstorm. These monkeys were finally drawn back to captivity using an unusual bait: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
The escaped rheseus macaque monkeys, all female, fled after police reported that an employee neglected to properly secure their enclosure at Alpha Genesis, a breeding facility that supplies monkeys for medical research, commonly referred to by locals as “the monkey farm.”
Greg Westergaard, CEO of Alpha Genesis, noted in a statement shared by the Yemassee Police on social media that the recaptured monkeys were in good health, but did not provide additional details. During the period the monkeys were free, the region encountered its first snowfall in seven years, with up to three inches accumulating on the ground.
The monkeys broke out on November 6 and primarily lingered around the facility. Weighing in at approximately 7 pounds (3 kilograms) and comparable in size to a house cat, they were not considered a threat to community health, as confirmed by Alpha Genesis, federal health officials, and law enforcement.
Westergaard mentioned that a worker inadvertently left the gates unsecured at the time of the escape, which should have been latched before opening another gate. Despite this oversight, workers from Alpha Guard monitored the situation and deployed humane traps to safely capture the monkeys. The majority were enticed back with food, enjoying peanut butter and jelly sandwiches alongside specially formulated “monkey biscuits,” which consist of high-protein Purina Monkey Chow made specifically for their dietary needs.
The breeding facility specializes in providing monkeys for various medical research institutions. Humans have utilized rhesus macaques for scientific inquiries since the late 1800s. It is believed that these monkeys and humans diverged from a mutual ancestor approximately 25 million years ago, sharing about 93% of their DNA.
Located roughly a mile (1.6 kilometers) from downtown Yemassee and around 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Savannah, Georgia, the compound has now successfully regained all its escaped residents.
