3 baboons still loose at Paris Zoo after 50 escaped

Police officers patrol outside of the Paris Zoological Park in the Bois de Vincennes, eastern Paris, on January 26, 2018, following the escape of nearly 50 baboons from their enclosure.
Nearly 50 baboons of the Paris Zoological Paris have escaped their enclosure on Friday, but have not “entered in contact” with public areas of the park, related to AFP by the establishment, who decided “for precaution” to evacuate the visitors. / AFP PHOTO / Thomas SAMSON

PARIS — Three baboons are still on the loose after around 50 escaped from their enclosure in Paris’s main zoo on Friday, forcing wardens to evacuate visitors while order was restored, the zoo said.

All the primates have been returned to their pens with the exception of “an elderly female, a young female and a baby”, said Sophie Ferreira-Le Morvan, the deputy head of the National Museum of Natural History.

They remain in the area of the “grand rocher”, a landmark central mountain inaccessible to the public at the Paris zoological park in the Vincennes area of the French capital.

The three baboons are “under surveillance”, Ferreira-Le Morvan said, and the zoo will not reopen until they are captured.

The breakout was first noticed by a zoo worker, who saw the primates gathering in a service corridor used by personnel late Friday morning.

Safety procedures were “immediately” triggered, the zoo said in a statement, with a total of 60 firefighters, 20 police and all of the zoo’s staff mobilised to capture the animals.

None of the baboons reached public areas and the evacuation was ordered as a precaution, the zoo said.