A MONKEY REVOLT

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 104, 29 October 1935, Page 5

A MONKEY REVOLT

ESCAPE FROM A ZOO

HOODWINKED KEEPER

The chattery rhesus monkey colony at Frank-Buck's jungle camp on the Sunrise Highway between Massapequa and Amityville, Long Island, near New York; gave no warning recently that it was aquiver with ' impending revolution, wrote a special correspondent of the "New York Times." But the. storm broke shortly before noon, and at night home owners and fruit-stand operators in two counties fidgeted uncomfortably in the advancing shadow of a simian invasion. ■ The coup was apparently simmering a little after 11 o'clock, when Charles Seiner, overalled and serene, approached the monkey "mountain" .in the centre of the zoo, armed with a bucket, a brush, and other incidentals. He had in mind a first-rate cleaning and renovation" of the' moat-rimmed quarters. With indifference born of long familiarity With' the job; he pushed a sturdy plank from the top of the eightfoot protective wall across, the circle of stagnant water to the shore of the peak-studded island, six feet away. Then he climbed the' wall, and using his equipment to help keep his balance, crossed to the crowded island. The .pale brown . creatures greeted him1 with a confusion of friendly chatter.,. Seiner set.about, his task, reflecting perhaps" that 570 rhesuses made up a more' neighbourly group than 570 of almost any animal he could think of. He scoffed at nebulous rumours of dis- ■ content in the hollows of the artificial peak, winked, at a short-tailed favourite,-, and began swabbing the recesses ■Of -"-the mountain. ■ ■; - * OVER THE BOARD,: ■ ; ■V^hen^.about three minutes later! he returned.to the sport where the: board touched the island, he forgot all about his job. For like/endless soldiers on a moving belt, scores of " the -goodhumoured and supposedly-satisfied monkeys were .prancing .to. freedom via the moat-bridgirig board. One after another, nuzzling just close enough to provide maximum speed,. with minimum risk of traffic congestion, the inhabitants .of the finest monkey hotel on Long-Island were.heading for parts unknown. \ »■ Seiner; watched a- few more reach the: wall, end of the board and disappear with saucy flourishes. .Then he snapped out of. tht spell, shattered- the line of march by thundering across the board himself, pulled the gangway away from the island, arid scrambled hopelessly after the fugitives. T; A.'Loveland," Mr. Buck's partner, now acting as manager of the fortyacre enclosure, was in New York; But the girl in-the ticket booth stopped counting 25-cent admissions and helped spread the general' alarm, which had been first sounded by Mrs. Arthur Soper, of Brentwood, a visitor. Practically t{ie whole staff of the zoo started: for, the rim! of the woods directly behind the monkey mountain^ They caught -: two little fellows, defiant but simply.too slow. "" s / Meanwhile, the rest of the zoo— there! are lions; tigers, and everything —apparently'enjoyed a good laugh,at therKeepers; Blight,!although there was fortunately no responsive escape reaction «nf the .part' of the snakes--; or elephants.. ,The Nassau County Police were notified' at- Merrick, and Patrolman Andrew Goebel rounded up two more fugitives. •...-, At 4 o'clock an eastbound Long Island trato.' Which'had just left Massapequa, for Seaford, shrieked to a stop near the camp.. Fifty of the rhesuses, chattering and^ having a grand time generally, were cavorting about the tracks.- The.motorman, who had heard about such th|ngs happening in India, cleared the tracks and proceeded after five minutes' delay.' . "CAPONE" AT LARGE. 'The .twilight shadows brought a change of heart to about thirty of the fugitive simians, and they headed for home, converging, through the woods on the wall'that encircles the "mountain." Up-'the- wall they went,' leaping singly and in pairs over the moat on the other side. Because of the darkness and the, haphazard manner of the home-coming, it was impossible to obtain -an accurate' count of the returning holidayrseekors. < Park officials concluded that of the 570 monkeys, at least 150 had escaped. Some were inclined to set the figure at 175 i because there were mothers with babies clinging to them in the party. -, Besides, the thirty-odd who scaled, the wall voluntarily, seven had been recaptured previously, leaving more than 100 to explore the wonders of-Long Island during the night. While.the hunt went on, and police began to anticipate a flood of telephone calls from peaceable citizens, who awoke with monkeys in or on the house, a further conference established that there must have been something in the recent rumours of tenseness on the island after all. It must have been a plot, it was conceded. And "they don't do such things without a leader," it was agreed., . The alleged leader was unanimously selected as having been an agile creature called Capone, who might have been suspected because of his name, but apparently was not. The harassed human beings made plain that the monkeys, which weighed from 51b to 121b apiece and were valued at up to fifty dollars each, were quite harmless. On a final wan note of hopefulness, they promised a season pass to:each person who brought back a monkey. As dusk cloaked the Massapequa woods it was;not regarded as. likely that there would be a severe drain on the supply o£ passes.