More than 40 monkeys escape facility in South Carolina

Police are searching for more than 40 monkeys that escaped from a medical research facility in Yemassee, South Carolina, on November 6.

According to a statement from the Yemassee Police Department, 43 rhesus macaques escaped from the Alpha Genesis Primate Research Center on Wednesday afternoon.

The monkeys had not been caught as of November 7, police said.

Greg Westergaard, the company's CEO, told NBC affiliate WSAV-TV in South Carolina that a research center employee left a door open while cleaning the monkey enclosure, allowing the monkeys to escape.

Westergaard, who estimated there were several thousand monkeys at the research center, said he assumed the monkeys would return to the facility on their own.

According to its website, Alpha Genesis specializes in providing non-human primate models to the biomedical research community.

The Beaufort County Post and Courier newspaper describes the center as one of the world's largest monkey breeders for research and medical testing.

Yemassee police said there was no health risk associated with the escaped monkeys.

The department advised residents to keep doors and windows securely closed to prevent the monkeys from entering homes. Residents who see one of the escaped monkeys are advised not to approach the monkeys alone and instead call 911 immediately.

According to police, traps have been set up in the area to capture the monkeys and thermal imaging cameras are helping in locating them.

The department added that it is working with the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office and state agriculture and wildlife agencies to humanely locate and return the monkeys.

The monkeys' escape is not the first time that primates have escaped from Alpha Genesis on their own initiative. In 2016, 19 monkeys escaped Alpha Genesis for six hours before being captured, the Post and Courier reported.

The publication also reported that Alpha Genesis won a federal contract in 2023 to operate a large monkey colony on Morgan Island, also known as Monkey Island, off the coast of South Carolina, to continue breeding monkeys for medical research.