HEIDELBERG, Miss. — Three monkeys were still on the loose Wednesday in Mississippi after a truck carrying the research animals overturned.
Authorities said as of midday Tuesday that all but one of the escaped rhesus monkeys had been killed, but the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department later said officials from Tulane University, which housed the monkeys, boarded the trailer Tuesday evening and determined that three monkeys had escaped.
Contrary to initial reports from the transport truck’s occupants, who warned that the monkeys were dangerous and infected with various diseases, Tulane officials said the monkeys were not contagious, Sheriff Randy Johnson said in a news release. The monkeys still needed to be “neutralized” because of their aggressive nature, Johnson said.
The truck was carrying rhesus monkeys, which typically weigh about 16 pounds (8 kilograms) and are among the most medically studied animals on the planet. It is not clear how many monkeys were on board the truck, who owned them, who was transporting them, or where they were being taken and for what purpose.
The monkeys were housed at Tulane University’s National Biomedical Research Center, which regularly supplies primates to scientific research organizations, according to the New Orleans school. In a statement, Tulane said the university did not own the monkeys or transport them.
The video shows monkeys crawling through tall grass on the side of Interstate 59 just north of Heidelberg, Mississippi, with wooden crates labeled “live animals” crumpled and scattered about.
University officials will be in the area searching for the missing monkeys, the sheriff said. All other monkeys were taken back to a facility in Louisiana.
If anyone sees monkeys, they should call authorities and not approach the animals, the sheriff’s office warned.
The crash occurred about 100 miles from the state capital, Jackson. It’s unclear what exactly caused the truck to overturn.
