Mississippi homeowner finds missing rhesus monkey
Nov. 2 (UPI) — A rhesus monkey missing in rural Mississippi was found Sunday, according to authorities searching for the last few primates that escaped from a crashed truck hauling nearly two dozen of them nearly a week ago.
The monkey was found by a homeowner on their property in Heidelberg, located about 87 miles southeast of Jackson, the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department said in a brief statement posted to its Facebook account.
The animal is now in the possession of the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, according to the sheriff’s department, which added that it had no further details about the monkey at this time.
The search continues for two additional monkeys that escaped Tuesday, when a truck transporting 21 rhesus monkeys crashed along a rural stretch of Mississippi highway. Following the crash, the sheriff’s department said three monkeys were still missing.
Authorities initially stated the animals weighed 40 pounds and posed “potential health threats,” as they allegedly carried hepatitis C, herpes and COVID-19.
The Jasper County Sheriff’s Department later recanted this statement, saying that the truck’s driver had stated the animals were infected with diseases, but the Tulane National Primate Research Center, which supplies monkeys to other research organizations, said the primates in question “are not infectious.”