Two emperor tamarin monkeys that had somehow escaped their enclosure from the Dallas Zoo were found in the closet of an abandoned home in a town 15 miles away, ending the latest crisis at the Texas facility that sounds like it belongs in Florida, but leading to more questions.
Per the Associated Press, the zoo realized the monkeys were missing Monday morning and found a cut in the animals’ enclosure that would have allowed the monkeys to escape or someone to go into the pen to grab them. Officials said earlier Monday that they did not believe the monkeys escaped on their own, and the fact that they were both found locked in the same closet a half hour drive from the zoo makes it highly unlikely it’s a monkey version of the blackout drunk night out from “The Hangover Part II.”
This is the third curious occurrence at the Dallas Zoo recently. A rare species of vulture died of being mysteriously wounded in its enclosure in December. A small leopard escaped in January through another cut enclosure, wandering free before being found next to its enclosure the following day. Workers have reported finding other enclosures cut, but did not find any animals missing or harmed.