Two monkeys ‘taken’ from Dallas Zoo in fourth suspicious case this year

‘It appears that somebody really has an issue with the Dallas Zoo’

Two emperor tamarin monkeys are missing from the Dallas Zoo, officials said on Monday amid a string of incidents occurring there in just a month.

The zoo authorities said their habitat seemed to have been tampered with and that they might have been “taken” from their enclosures.

The officials notified the police and said they had reason to believe the tamarin monkeys’ habitat was “intentionally compromised”.

“On Monday morning (30 January), Dallas Zoo alerted the Dallas Police Department after the animal care team discovered two of our emperor tamarin monkeys were missing. It was clear the habitat had been intentionally compromised,” the zoo said in a statement.

“Emperor tamarin monkeys would likely stay close to home - the zoo searched near their habitat and across zoo grounds, and did not locate them. Based on the Dallas Police Department’s initial assessment, they have reason to believe the tamarins were taken,” it added.

This is the fourth such suspicious case to have occurred at the 106-acre Dallas Zoological Park since 1 January.

The first incident, on 13 January, involved a clouded leopard called Nova. The zoo discovered that it was not in its habitat and issued a Code Blue alert, indicating a non-dangerous animal was not in its home.

The animal was later found unharmed, but police said the clouded leopard’s habitat appeared to have been intentionally cut and not torn open by the animal.

The very next day, a cut in the fencing of a second animal habitat was found.

Another incident involved the “suspicious” death of an endangered lappet-faced vulture named Pin at the zoo on 21 January. Officials said at the time that the circumstances surrounding the bird’s death were “unusual” and that the cause of death did not appear to be natural.

Dallas Zoo president and CEO Gregg Hudson said the vulture had “a wound”.

According to local media, no arrests have been made in any of the investigations and police have not said whether the incidents are linked.

“It appears that somebody really has an issue with the Dallas Zoo,” Ed Hansen, chief executive of the American Association of Zoo Keepers, told the Associated Press.

The zoo, meanwhile, said it added additional cameras and increased overnight security patrols.