Daring Daylight Lab Monkey Catapult Escape

How’s that for a headline?  If you were watching previews at the theater, and “DARING DAYLIGHT LAB MONKEY CATAPULT ESCAPE . . . THIS SUMMER” came up on the screen, they wouldn’t even have to show footage.  You’re already seeing that, and, for once, 3D is totally justified.

Fifteen monkeys escaped from the prestigious research center at Kyoto University in Japan, where around eighty monkeys in total are observed to study primate behavior and social interaction.  The researchers were at first puzzled how the monkeys could get over a seventeen foot high electric fence when all the trees near it are trimmed to about six feet high and are all six to nine feet from the fence.

The fifteen monkeys stretched the short tree branches enough to catapult themselves, one at a time, over the seventeen foot electric fence and land safely, ’cause monkeys are awesome.

However, despite the intelligence shown in their great escape, the primates appeared unsure as to what to do with their newfound freedom: the monkeys remained by the gates of the research centre and were lured back into captivity by scientists armed with peanuts. [Telegraph]

Thwarted by delicious peanuts!  The researchers have cut the trees by the fence even shorter now, so the monkeys will just have to come up with another ingenious plan to achieve temporary flight and get free peanuts (might I suggest buying an airline ticket?).

And since it’s Japan, I’ll bet this is part of the “behavior” research they were doing there:

No wonder they weren’t phased by improvised catapults.

[Video via HYST; Story via Telegraph, JapanTimes, and TheFirstPost]