San Antonio's most famous monkey has started his new life at an animal sanctuary in South Texas, but people are still asking---how did the Rhesus Macaque manage to get out of his carrier and create national news by monkeying round at San Antonio International Airport on Monday, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Chuck Cureau at the San Antonio Zoo, which helped tranquilize the monkey, who has been named Dawkins by the Born Free USA Foundation, which runs the sanctuary where he now lives, says Macatues are sneaky little guys.
"The primates are highly curious and they are highly intelligent animals," he said. "They are also highly resourceful animals."He says at the Zoo, they build special homes for this type of monkey."
These animals are intelligent, they are somewhat ambidextrous, so to speak, and we take that into consideration," he said.
Born Free USA said in a statement that Dawkins is 'doing well and exploring his new home, where he will be able to live a life as close as possible to the wild.'
"This incident illustrates the problems with keeping wild animals, like monkeys, in captivity," Prashant Khetan, President and General Counsel of Born Free USA said in a statement. "As wild animals, their natural behaviors and instincts are best suited for life in the wild; when put into unnatural situations, wild animals can get stressed, be unpredictable and, if threatened, they will react. At Born Free USA's Primate Sanctuary, Dawkins (who is doing well despite yesterday’s stressful transport) will have the opportunity to live in a large, natural enclosure, socialize, play, forage, and enjoy a life as close as possible to the wild, with minimal human interference. It is an honor to welcome Dawkins to this new, more natural life, but we hope that one day, sanctuaries like ours will not be necessary because wild animals like Dawkins will no longer be taken from the wild or bred for a life in captivity."
PHOTO: BORN FREE USA