Six Flags didn't want to cop to a missing baboon from its theme park but the primate--on the loose for 3 days while roaming local neighborhoods--has finally been captured after a dragnet by police. In the meantime the baboon's been visiting 'neighbors' and utilizing their porches.
Cops think the animal made the great escape from nearby Six Flags Great Adventure's Monkey Jungle -- home to roughly 150 baboons. In the meantime, Six Flags claimed no knowledge of any loose baboon: "To our knowledge, none of our [Six Flags] animals have left the premises, but it is not impossible," Six Flags spokesperson Kristin Siebeneicher had originally told MSNBC.
It seems the monkeys prefer outdoor air at nighttime and haven't recently being rounded up each night and morning. Translation: it's breeding season -- and Six Flags park staff has been trying to give the baboons some privacy. “There is breeding happening since we let them live as naturally as possible,” according to Six Flags' Siebeneicher.
Perhaps on the slightly scarier side,the Six Flags park doesn't know when anyone last took a head count of its baboon population. The theme park claimed it didn't notice any “tampering” with the fences surrounding its monkey park.
Late in the week on Thursday, a New Jersey driver spotted the baboon near Interstate 195. But that didn't equal its next sighting: Later in the day a woman discovered the baboon again -- this time, relaxing and sitting on her back porch in Jackson. The next morning, two residents -- not far from the Six Flags them park -- reported a baboon in the neighborhood.
Over the days, dozens of New Jersey residents had spotted the lost monkey, whose might recent sighting prior to capture was at the Metedeconk National Golf Course. From the golf course, the primate ran into neighboring Freehold Township. A vet had reportedly tried to shoot the baboon with a tranquilizer gun on the course, but missed -- spooking the baboon into nearby woods.
Not aggressive by nature, baboons can travel quickly and this one did. The animal covered about 10 miles in just over a day. A man who was working in his garage said he heard his wife scream, only to discover the baboon standing outside their sliding glass door. At another home, the baboon was reported to grab a lawnmower handle.
Highly suspected to have escaped from the Six Flags monkey park, the roaming New Jersey baboon couldn't be identified. Baboons in Six Flags' Monkey Jungle are microchipped. But that requires someone who dares to get close enough to find out about any potential chip. Siebeneicher says the baboon would have to not only be close, but very close, to be identified by a chip reader: “It could be be identified if you had a chip reader, but you’d need to have the [the baboon] in your possession.”
No one had previously tried taking "possession" of the wandering baboon, until police finally nabbed the loose animal over the weekend. The theme park has continued to refuse to admit the primate belongs to the park -- only calling the monkey's origin of Six Flags as "highly likely".
No kidding.
The baboon has been deposited at Six Flags after finally being caught in Howell, New Jersey -- and despite the fact the theme park has never publicly admitted the primate is theirs. If it doesn't belong to Six Flags, its monkey park just got a new addition.