Forty-three young female monkeys escaped Wednesday night from Alpha Genesis, a biomedical research facility in Beaufort County, South Carolina after a new employee left an enclosure unsecured.
Police launched a search using thermal imaging cameras and food-baited traps while warning residents to secure their homes and avoid interacting with the monkeys, which have never been used for testing and are reportedly too young to carry disease.
The incident continues a pattern of security issues at Alpha Genesis, which manages a 3,500-monkey colony on South Carolina’s “Monkey Island.”
Federal officials fined Alpha Genesis in 2018 for previous escapes and violations, with additional breakouts occurring in May 2024 and 2016.