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http://www.democratandchronicle.com/news/05278E4DAKN_news.shtml

50-pound baboon gets loose at the zoo

By James Goodman
Staff Writer

(May 27, 2004)  Just how one of the 15 Anubis baboons on loan to the Seneca 
Park Zoo got loose Wednesday morning is still under investigation.

But what is known is that at about 7 a.m. a security guard found a 50-pound 
baboon  the largest of the males on loan here through September outside his 
exhibit area, in a nearby fenced-in zookeeper area.

The baboon, which does not have a name, was sitting next to the chute that 
connects a caged housing area inside a barn with a 12-foot-high, fenced-in 
exhibit area, which has electrified wires that are supposed to shock a baboon 
trying to escape.

He was touching his mates and was very calm, said Dr. Jeff Wyatt, 
veterinarian for the zoo.

No one was hurt and the opening of the zoo, normally at 10 a.m., was delayed 
by about 10 minutes.

But getting the baboon back into its exhibit area was no easy task. It took 
more than two hours.

Wyatt tried to anesthetize the baboon with a tranquilizer dart; but instead 
of falling asleep, the baboon climbed a tall oak tree in the zookeeper area.

He seemed most interested in staying away from me and getting back to his 
troop, Wyatt said.

The baboon, Wyatt noted, communicated with his mates by making a barking 
sound  and they barked back.

Wyatt said that it was only after he stepped back that the baboon, not eager 
to be the target of another tranquilizer dart, came down and ventured back 
into the exhibit area.

Shaunta Collier-Santos, spokeswoman for the zoo, said that zoo officials are 
trying to figure out how the baboon got out and are taking additional 
precautions. Well be adding more wire near the top and at corners of the 
12-foot fence, she said.

The baboons are on loan from International Animal Exchange in Port Clinton, 
Ohio.

Wednesdays escape came about nine months after Lowell the orangutan ventured 
out of his cage at the zoo. That escape also ended peacefully, but not before 
the orangutan picked up a volunteer who had been cleaning in the area.

JGOODMAN AT DemocratandChronicle.com

Staff writer Jeffrey Blackwell contributed to this report.




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