Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/HOUSTON: Two missing emperor tamarin monkeys were found alive and well on Tuesday, according to authorities, a day after they vanished from the Dallas Zoo in the most recent of several strange episodes at the facility.
Dallas police released a photo of a man wearing a hoodie who may be connected to the two monkeys’ abduction and claimed the two animals, reported missing on Monday, may have been taken out of the zoo on purpose.
Monkeys found in abandoned property
The two monkeys were eventually found in an abandoned property in Lancaster, a town about 15 miles (25 kilometers) south of the zoo, according to a tweet from Dallas police on Tuesday night.
A picture of a tamarin monkey with its distinctive white whiskers sitting on what appears to be a makeshift fence leaning against a wall was shared by the police department.
The zoo has received the monkeys back. The loss of the monkeys was the second instance of an animal leaving the institution in recent weeks. After caretakers found a break in a clouded leopard’s enclosure, the zoo was forced to close on January 13. The huge cat that had gone missing was later located close to her habitat and had not left the zoo premises.
A little over a week later, the zoo announced that a threatened lappet-faced vulture had been discovered dead from a wound, adding that the “circumstances of the death are exceptional.”
The emperor tamarins in the most recent incident “would likely stay close to home,” according to the zoo. Hence, staff members searched the area around the monkey enclosure and the zoo grounds but were unsuccessful.
The Dallas Police Department has grounds to think the tamarins were removed, according to their preliminary investigation, the zoo said in a statement.
The oldest and biggest zoo in Texas added extra cameras and increased nighttime security patrols after the vulture was discovered dead.
