A carelessly locked door led to the escape of 43 monkeys last week from a facility in South Carolina in the US. The monkeys, of the rhesus macaque species, are bred to be sold as laboratory animals for medical research and behavioral studies.
On Monday, 30 of the escaped monkeys, all female and weighing around three kilograms, had been captured unharmed, but 13 of them are still in the wild, reports AP. According to the authorities, the monkeys pose no danger to the public.
Most of the escapees are said to have stayed close to the facility after escaping on Wednesday and employees have tried to lure them with food. According to the breeder, the monkeys are now communicating with their friends on the inside.
– It is certain that they have relationships with those who entered. I think that the vocalizations you have heard are precisely about trying to keep track of each other, says Karolina Westlund, PhD in ethology.
“Ready”
Rhesus macaques have been one of the most studied animal species in the world for over a hundred years. They are described as socially intelligent and have many similarities with us humans, including when it comes to genes.
– They are very smart and dexterous and can use their hands to pick things up and carry them around.
In the wild, the species is found in Asia, including in Afghanistan, India, Vietnam and China. They live in large herds, where several groups of related females form the nucleus.
According to Karolina Westlund, the monkeys have an evolutionary advantage of being able to communicate well with each other in order to better coordinate their behavior and keep the herd together.
Check the hierarchy
The American professor Dario Maestripieri, who has written a book about rhesus macaques and is quoted by the news agency TT, also believes that the species spends a lot of time building “political alliances” with each other.
However, Karolina Westlund does not believe that this will happen in this particular case.
– They are perhaps not the most “political” of the monkeys. Those who are most strategic in their alliance building are probably chimpanzees. But rhesus macaques certainly know exactly where they are in the hierarchy, she says, adding:
– But I’m guessing that right now, when 13 of them are out in a completely unknown environment, then it’s not so much alliance building that you hear, but rather “Hello, where are you? I don’t recognize myself, this is a bit scary” or “look, I found this funny”.