Police are on the hunt for 40 monkeys that escaped a research facility in South Carolina, warning local residents to keep their windows and doors shut.
The fugitives are sought by police in Yemassee, South Carolina. Officers said the monkey escaped from a business called Alpha Genesis, which provides “nonhuman primate products and bio-research services,” according to its website.
The police and animal wranglers have set up traps in the area where the monkeys are believed to be hiding, and are using thermal imaging cameras to help spot the primates, NBC News reports.
“Residents are strongly advised to keep doors and windows secured to prevent these animals from entering homes,” Yemassee Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.
Anyone who sees or finds a monkey is asked to call 911, the Yemassee Police Department said.
“Just don’t try to take these things home or pet them,” Yemassee Police Chief Gregory Alexander said, per the Post and Courier. “We’re getting a lot of that on our social media. That’s a felony because they don’t belong to you.”
Alpha Genesis conducts research trials using the monkeys, and prides itself on being “one of the largest and most comprehensive nonhuman primate facilities, designed specifically for monkeys, in the United States.” According to federal data, the facility houses more than 6,000 monkeys.
The sheriff’s department did not confirm which species of monkey escaped the lab, but Alpha Genesis’s website says it primarily works with capuchin and macaques.
It’s unclear if the monkeys were part of an ongoing clinical trial, and if so, what kind of testing they had undergone before escaping.
Alpha Genesis maintains a colony of 3,500 monkeys on Morgan Island, in South Carolina — which has since been called Monkey Island — where it breeds monkeys for research purposes.
This isn’t the first time monkeys have escaped into Beaufort County, South Carolina; the region’s newspaper, the Post and Courier, reported that there have been several other escapes, including an incident in 2016 when 19 monkeys spent six hours on the run.
In addition to Alpha Genesis’s Monkey Island in South Carolina, there are at least three species of monkeys with breeding populations living in Florida — none native — including rhesus macaques that were intended to be a part of a tourist attraction in the 1930s. The descendants of those monkeys will roam parts of Florida to this day.