The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

[Jeremy Salmon <jdsalmon AT engin.umich.edu>]

Thursday, 3 May, 2001, 15:02 GMT 16:02 UK 

Monkey business causes flight mayhem
---
http://news.bbc.co.uk/low/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1311000/1311090.stm
  
                                     
A drugged baboon smuggled onto a Yemeni plane caused havoc after it awoke
and broke loose during a flight, the official Yemeni news agency SABA
reported on
Thursday. 

The incident occurred 90 minutes into the scheduled flight between Sanaa
and Damascus. 

Chaos reigned, as women and children screamed and crew members struggled
to catch the escaped baboon, the agency said. 

The baboon turned out to be part of an illegal consignment of Hamadryas
baboons that a smuggler had knocked out with anaesthetic and then brought
on board in two boxes.

Awaiting repatriation 

Security agents on board the plane arrested the smuggler, who was named as
Badih. He is reported to have admitted he was taking the baboons to Syria
to sell for $3,000.

The baboons are now said to be in police custody at Damascus Airport,
awaiting repatriation to Yemen. 

The Hamadryas baboon species is unique to the mountains of Yemen and the
south-western Saudi province of Asir. 


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Jeremy Kingfish Salmon  jdsalmon AT engin.umich.edu  www.umich.edu/~jdsalmon/  
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