KING 5 reports that Woodland Park Zoo was on lockdown this morning after a DeBrazza monkey escaped from his outdoor exhibit. Zoo staff escorted visitors out as a precaution and set up a safe perimeter. The lockdown ended at about 11:30 a.m.
Update 3 p.m.: This is a picture of Riktus from yesterday, which was his first day in the outside enclosure. (Photo by Erin Sullivan/Woodland Park Zoo.)
According to a press release from the zoo, Riktus is a 12-year-old male DeBrazza’s guenon, a type of African monkey.
He jumped across the perimeter of the Tropical Rain Forest exhibit at approximately 10:40 this morning. Within the 45 minute incident, the 12-year-old monkey was tranquilized by the zoo’s animal management staff in the vicinity of the African Village exhibit at approximately 11:15 a.m. and then safely secured.
Guests were immediately evacuated from the area and escorted to secured buildings on zoo grounds by the zoo’s emergency response team. The zoo’s perimeter was locked-down for safety and reopened after the animal was secured. No guests, staff or animals were injured during the incident.
The animal had been at the zoo since May 2008, but was just being introduced for the first time to its outdoor exhibit this week, located in the zoo’s award-winning Tropical Rain Forest. It was his second day in the exhibit.
He’s now back in his behind-the-scenes holding area, while zoo staff assesses the exhibit and makes any necessary modifications.
10 responses so far ↓
1 david stoesz // Feb 19, 2009 at 6:14 pm
That monkey looks like a table.
2 White Devil // Feb 19, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Yeah. That’s what happens when table and monkey make a baby. a monkey table.
3 Grasshopper // Feb 19, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Riktus! STAY IN YOUR F***ING CAGE! YOU BELONG IN YOUR CAGE! DON’T YOU KNOW ANIMALS LIVE IN CAGES! GOSH Rikitus!
4 drallab // Feb 20, 2009 at 8:49 am
Monkey on the lam!
5 shopdog // Feb 20, 2009 at 10:05 am
Someone told me it’s all happening at the zoo…I do believe it. I do believe it’s true…
6 Whopper // Feb 20, 2009 at 10:25 am
Did the Animal Liberation crazies try to break him out?
Monkeys want know.
7 Whopper // Feb 20, 2009 at 10:28 am
BTW, he looks suspiciously like a Greenwood tweaker: unable to walk upright, beady eyes, unshaven and unbathed. Plus the goatee with food in it. Definitely on the lamb for his buddies north of 85th.
8 John // Feb 20, 2009 at 11:42 am
If there’s something more pathetic than an attention-starved stalker on a small community events blog, I’m not sure what it is.
9 velo // Feb 20, 2009 at 1:25 pm
cheeky monkey
10 Greenwood_D // Feb 20, 2009 at 2:17 pm
“BTW, he looks suspiciously like a Greenwood tweaker”.
He may be an accomplice to the Phinney robber from last night. Looks like Phinney has some tweakers too, to go along with the Wallingford tweakers that hang out here and rob small businesses.
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