Four baboons escape research facility in Texas

April 16 (UPI) — A research facility in Texas confirmed four baboons escaped and ran loose through a neighborhood before being recaptured.

Jannelle Bouton captured photos of a baboon running loose in a San Antonio street on Saturday after escaping from the Texas Biomedical Research Institute.

Bouton said there were people in medical masks chasing after the monkey.

“The baboon stopped at one point and he was just looking, and then it darted into the bushes and these guys are frazzled and they are freaking out,” Bouton told KSAT-TV. “You can tell that [the workers] were panicking because they didn’t want him to get hurt because they were trying their best to quarantine him, but being that kind of animal, he wasn’t having it.”

The institute said three of the baboons were recaptured within 20 minutes and the fourth returned on its own.

“Our immediate concern has been for the safety of the animals, personnel and our neighbors in the surrounding area,” the institute said in a statement provided to WOAI-TV. “Our animal capture team and entire animal care team acted diligently to locate, secure and account for all four baboons.”

Officials said the baboons were examined by a veterinarian and found to be uninjured.

Bouton said she is concerned about the well-being of the baboons, which are kept by the institute for research into chronic and infectious diseases.

“The fact that [the workers] had medical masks on and it’s a wild animal, it is a monkey. You just want to know what they are doing is safe,” she said.