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The rhesus macaques escaped Wednesday after an employee at the Alpha Genesis facility in Yemassee failed to fully lock the door while feeding and checking on them, officials said.
“They’re very social monkeys and they travel in groups, so when the first couple walks out the door, the others just follow,” Alpha Genesis CEO Greg Westergaard told CBS News.
Westergaard said his main goal is to get the monkeys back to safety without any other problems.
“I think they’re having an adventure,” he said.
The monkeys were exploring the outer fence of the Alpha Genesis complex on Friday and cooing to the monkeys inside, police said in a statement.
“The primates are behaving calmly and playfully, which is a positive sign,” the police statement said, adding that company workers are keeping a close eye on the monkeys, keeping a distance while they work to recapture them safely.
Monkeys are about the size of a cat. All females weigh about 3 kilograms.
Alpha Genesis, federal health officials and police said the monkeys do not pose a public health threat.
The facility breeds monkeys for sale to medical and other researchers.
“They are not infected with any disease. They’re harmless and a little timid,” Yemassee Police Chief Gregory Alexander said Thursday.
Authorities are still recommending that people living near the complex, about 1 mile (1.6 km) from the center of Yemassee, close their windows and doors and call 911 if they see monkeys. Getting closer could make them more timid and harder to catch, officials said.
Eve Cooper, a biology professor at the University of Colorado Boulder who has studied rhesus macaques, said the animals can be dangerous and urged people to stay away.
Rhesus macaque monkeys can be aggressive. And some carry the herpes B virus, which can be fatal to humans, Cooper said.
However, Alpha Genesis states on its website that it specializes in pathogen-free primates. Cooper noted that there are pathogen-free populations of rhesus macaques that have been quarantined and tested.
“I would give them a wide berth,” Cooper said. “They are unpredictable animals. And they can act quite aggressively when they’re scared.”
Alpha Genesis provides primates for research around the world at its compound about 80 kilometers northeast of Savannah, Georgia, according to its website.
It is known locally as the “monkey farm”.
There’s more fun than panic around Yemassee and its population of about 1,100 just off Interstate 95 about 2 miles from Auldbrass Plantation, a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed 1930s home.
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There have been escapes before, but the monkeys didn’t cause problems, said William McCoy, owner of Lowcountry Horology, a watch repair shop.
“They usually come home because that’s where the food is,” he said.
McCoy has lived in Yemassee for about two years and although he plans to stay away from the monkeys, he has his own light-hearted plan to bring them back.
“I’m collecting bananas, they might show up,” McCoy said.
The Alpha Genesis complex is regularly monitored by federal officials.
In 2018, the US Department of Agriculture fined Alpha Genesis US$12,600 (A$19,148) in part after officials said 26 primates escaped from the Yemassee facility in 2014 and an additional 19 escaped in 2016.
The company was also fined for the escape of individual monkeys, as well as the killing of one monkey by others when it was placed in the wrong social group, according to the USDA report.
The group Stop Animal Exploitation Now sent a letter to the USDA on Thursday asking the agency to immediately send an inspector to the Alpha Genesis facility, conduct a thorough investigation and treat them as repeat offenders.
The group was involved in a fine against the company in 2018.
“The clear carelessness that allowed these 40 monkeys to escape endangered not only the animals’ safety, but also endangered the residents of South Carolina,” wrote Michael Budkie, the group’s executive director.
The USDA, which has inspected the complex 10 times since 2020, did not immediately respond to the letter.
The last federal inspection of the facility in May found that there were about 6,700 primates on site and no problems.
In a 2022 review, federal veterinarians reported that two animals died when their toes became trapped in the structures and were exposed to bad weather. They also found that the cages were not secure enough.
Inspectors said criminal charges, civil penalties or other sanctions could follow if the problems are not addressed.
Since then, the Alpha Genesis has passed six inspections with minor issues reported only once.
In January 2023, the USDA said temperatures were outside the required range of 7.2 to 29.5 degrees in some monkey cages at the compound.
The inspection found moldy food in one bucket, sharp edges on the door that could cut an animal and sludge, food waste, used medical supplies, mechanical equipment and general construction debris on the grounds.
Proponents of medical research involving nonhuman primates have said they are key to life-saving medical advances such as the creation of a vaccine against COVID-19 because of their similarity to humans. Maintaining a domestic supply of animals is critical to preventing shortages for American researchers.
People have been using rhesus macaques for scientific research since the late 1800s. Scientists believe that rhesus macaques and humans split from a common ancestor about 25 million years ago and share about 93 percent of the same DNA.
These monkeys were launched into space by V2 rockets, used for AIDS research, had their genome mapped and became the stars of their own reality television show. They were in such demand in the early 2000s that a shortage led to scientists paying up to $10,000 per animal.
Animals are very family-oriented, they side with their relatives when quarrels break out. And they are adept at forming political alliances in the face of threats from other apes. But they can be painful to watch. Monkeys with a lower status in the hierarchy live in a constant state of fear and intimidation, Maestripieri said.
“In a way, they represent some of the worst aspects of human nature,” Maestripieri said.
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