Two male Chimpanzees escaped from their cage yesterday, July 12 at the National Museum and Monument complex in Jos, Plateau State. One of them has since been caught and safely returned to its cage while the other fled the zoo premises and is presently hiding on a tree in the West of Mines residential area not too far from the museum. See attached pictures.

Information trickling in from sources close to the recapture operation suggests that the Chimpanzee may likely get shot if it cannot be caught.

“In the early hours of yesterday morning, two chimpanzees escaped from their cage and were harassing passersby at the premises of the Jos National Museum and Monuments. One of the chimps was successfully lured back into its cage while the other escaped running out of the Zoo premises and perching on a tree in a residential area located at west of mines neighborhood not far from the zoo premises.

All efforts by the men of the Plateau State Fire Service to capture it alive proof abortive. After 8 hours of trying, one of the firemen climbed the tree and cut down the branch the Chimp was hanging on making it to fall then running into the grove close to the zoo. As at the time of this report, the Chimpanzee was nowhere to be found after disappearing into the thick bushes.

A reliable source informed our reporter that the Chimpanzee may likely get shot if sighted” .

This unfortunate incident is happening at the backdrop of the escape of a lion (3 months ago) from the Jos Wildlife park, which authorities failed to recapture and therefore had to shoot – leading to massive outrage from the Nigerian public and human right groups. A new lion from Borno state has since been obtained by the park on a trade by barter arrangement and has aptly been named after the State Governor.

The killing of the lion, which was said to have escaped from its cage because it had been left for days without food, sparked a debate about the general welfare of animals in Nigeria zoos/parks and whether government was doing enough to take care of the animals. Also in the spotlight was the unfortunate fact that the zoos do not have tranquilizers to shoot and sedate the animals if they escape – instead they call-in soldiers who use “live” bullets to shoot and kill the rare animals.

The escape of these chimpanzees brings to fray the rather unfortunate state of affairs in these Plateau state tourist attractions, which ordinarily should be generating a lot of revenue for the state government – but instead are in a state of total dilapidation.

It remains unclear why the past few months has witnessed a high number of animal escapes from the zoo/wildlife park, but a staff of the zoo who spoke to ViewPointNigeria on condition of anonymity, suggested that the escapes of the animals is not unconnected to the immense hardship from low funding being experienced by several parastatals of the state.

He said “If not for last week that salaries started to be paid, most workers in this zoo could not afford money for transportation or food, so how do you expect a hungry man to take care of animals? If people cannot get food to eat, how will animals get anything? I assure you, many of these animals only get food once every 3 days because there is no funding”.

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Two chimpanzees escape from Jos Zoo