THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Three female gray langurs escaped from their enclosure in Thiruvananthapuram Zoo on Monday early morning. This is the second time the city zoo has witnessed such an incident.
The great escapade came to the notice of two watchmen on night duty around 7am on Monday. They immediately alerted the zoo officials and on inspection, it was found that the three gray langurs were perched on tree tops next to its open enclosure.
The keepers tried to lure the elusive monkeys with fruits but to no avail.
Meanwhile, the lone male gray langur is idling in the open enclosure which has led the zoo authorities to hope that the three female langurs will return.
“We are hoping that they will return to their enclosure soon. The male gray langur has been communicating with his friends perched on the nearby trees,” Museum and Zoo director P S Manjula Devi told TNIE.
According to a zoo keeper, the wind and thunderstorm played spoilsport and helped the monkeys escape.
“There is a bamboo tree near the open enclosure of the gray langur. The wind and thunderstorm in the night saw a branch of the bamboo tree lean on the wall of the open enclosure, and the monkeys made use of this to escape,” the zoo keeper told TNIE.
The zoo authorities have deployed extra staff to keep track of the monkeys apart from the existing two guards and two keepers who act as night watchmen.
Four gray langurs were brought in from Sri Venkateswara Zoological Park, Tirupati, to the city zoo in June 2023. On June 12, one of them decided to break free when the authorities shifted the animal to its new enclosure after a week-long quarantine. It was finally caught after 24 days from the bathroom of the German Cultural Centre at DPI Junction.