Three monkeys that left a Tulane University research center and are said to be “aggressive to humans” are loose in Jasper County following a truck crash on Interstate 59, Mississippi authorities said Tuesday evening, increasing the number of primates unaccounted for from a previous estimate of just one.
The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office said officials from the Tulane National Biomedical Research Center on the northshore arrived at the scene just north of Heidelberg and provided a more accurate count of the number of monkeys that were destroyed after escaping, those recovered alive from the crash and those that remain at large.
Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson told WDAM-TV that five monkeys are dead, 13 were still in their cages and have been taken into custody and three remain on the loose.
The truck carrying the monkeys flipped near mile marker 117 on Tuesday afternoon, allowing some of them to escape.
Tulane has said the monkeys, which weigh about 40 pounds, were not being transported by Tulane officials and were not infectious, despite initial reports from the Sheriff’s Department claiming the monkeys were infected with COVID-19, hepatitis C and herpes.
