The drone is looking for surviving apes who are known to be in the chimpanzee house. Shooting chimpanzees has attracted a lot of criticism in Sweden.
17:48•Updated 18:07
Armed guards guard the chimpanzee house at a Swedish zoo. Inside are four chimpanzees that have escaped from their enclosure, one of which is suffering from a gunshot wound.
Yesterday, Wednesday, some of the seven chimpanzees at the Furuviksparken zoo in Gävle managed to escape from their enclosures and the chimpanzee house, numerous Swedish media reports.
Three of the chimpanzees were shot dead. The fourth chimpanzee that was shot is still alive, but injured. According to the zoo, the chimpanzees were shot because there was not enough anesthetic available.
– At the moment, we are focusing on finding out where the four chimpanzees are so that we can start moving them back to their enclosures in a safe way, said the communications director of the company that owns the zoo Annika Troselius public broadcasting company for SVT (you switch to another service) on Thursday afternoon.
According to him, a drone will be sent to the chimpanzee house to locate the escaped great apes. Zoo workers are not allowed in the chimpanzee house, as chimpanzees can be dangerous to humans. The zoo is closed to the public for the winter.
Shooting chimpanzees has attracted a lot of criticism in Sweden. According to the zoo, there was no other option.
The retired chimpanzee keeper wonders about the shooting Ing-Marie Perssonwho worked at Furuviksparken for 30 years.
– It seems very strange that the plan has been to shoot the chimpanzees as soon as they come outside their home. It’s incomprehensible, says Persson For Dagens Nyheter (you switch to another service).
According to him, over the years, the chimpanzees have escaped from their enclosure numerous times before, but they have been quickly brought back inside.
It is not known how the chimpanzees got out of their enclosure this time. The Swedish police are now investigating whether the chimpanzees were able to escape as a result of the zoo’s negligence, says SVT (you switch to another service).