Chimpanzees 'Great Escape' at Belfast Zoo
There are calls for increased safety measures at the north Belfast visitor attraction after two escapes in as many months
Last updated 11th Feb 2019
Chimpanzees used a branch to escape an enclosure at Belfast Zoo on Saturday.
Zookeepers blamed recent stormy weather for weakening trees inside their corral as visitors had a closer encounter than planned.
The intelligent primates turned a limb into a makeshift ladder and scaled high walls surrounding their pen in Northern Ireland, footage posted to social media showed.
Shocked visitors described seeing one of the mammals emerge from the bushes onto a path at the animal park north of the city.
One child watching the spectacle exclaimed: "Don't escape you bad little gorilla.''
Other chimpanzees were filmed sitting atop the walls. The great escape ended when the animals returned to their quarters.
It was the second breach in recent weeks after an endangered red panda went missing when electric fences failed. The animal was recaptured in the driveway of a nearby house.
Belfast City Council, which runs the zoo, said: "Zookeepers were present as the chimpanzee quickly returned from an adjacent wall to the rest of the group inside the enclosure.''
Zookeepers said trees in their enclosure have been weakened by the storms, allowing the creatures to break them and use them as a ladder to escape.
Alliance North Belfast Councillor Nuala McAllister has asked for an urgent review into safety measures at the Zoo.
“I have contacted Belfast City Council to ask for an urgent review into the containment of animals, with a particular focus on safety measures after extreme bad weather conditions, as we saw at the weekend and which helped create the conditions for this escape,” said Councillor McAllister.
“The Council has a duty of care around the welfare of animals at the zoo but we also need to ensure the safety at all times of the public. This incident could have easily resulted in an injury or worse – while chimps are intelligent creatures, they have been known to attack people.
“This is the second escape from the zoo this year and it is only February. While Belfast Zoo carries out good work in terms of conservation and breeding programmes, that is simply not good enough and we need to ensure it doesn’t happen again."