OKLAHOMA CITY -- A 22-year-old chimpanzee named Mwami seems to be on good terms again with his fellow primates at the Oklahoma City Zoo. But around noon Monday, Zoo staff heard the chimps screaming. Mwami had been chased up a tree by the others. "Probably was doing stuff in the group he shouldn't have been doing," says Zoo Executive Director Dwight Scott. "He is the dominate male, but when he pushes the boundaries, the other chimps in the group will unite against him and put him in his place."
Scott says Mwami somehow got through an electric fence and jumped down into a 14-foot dry moat that surrounds the exhibit.
Emergency staff teams, armed with tranquilizer darts and firearms, surrounded the area to make sure he didn't get out.
"To be safe, we wanted to make sure however he got down into the moat could not be used to get outside the moat and outside his exhibit," Scott says.
Lisa Meadows was in town from Buffalo, New York visiting family.
"We were in the kiddie park, then we heard 'code red, code red' and everybody was rushing us into a concession stand," Meadows says.
They were ushered into a food court building and locked in, thinking a chimpanzee was on the loose.
"At first, we thought he could walk into the room, break the glass and go right into the concession room," she says. "Hoping that didn't happen, which it didn't. It was a scary experience."
Over the course of two hours, staff members used fire extinguishers and Mwami's favorite treat, cotton candy, to coax him to climb up a cargo net and back into the exhibit.
Scott says no one was ever in danger because the dry moat did its job.
That same chimp got into that moat 3 years ago.
Scott says they will review the layout of that electric fence to keep this from happening again.
Scott says Mwami somehow got through an electric fence and jumped down into a 14-foot dry moat that surrounds the exhibit.
Emergency staff teams, armed with tranquilizer darts and firearms, surrounded the area to make sure he didn't get out.
"To be safe, we wanted to make sure however he got down into the moat could not be used to get outside the moat and outside his exhibit," Scott says.
Lisa Meadows was in town from Buffalo, New York visiting family.
"We were in the kiddie park, then we heard 'code red, code red' and everybody was rushing us into a concession stand," Meadows says.
They were ushered into a food court building and locked in, thinking a chimpanzee was on the loose.
"At first, we thought he could walk into the room, break the glass and go right into the concession room," she says. "Hoping that didn't happen, which it didn't. It was a scary experience."
Over the course of two hours, staff members used fire extinguishers and Mwami's favorite treat, cotton candy, to coax him to climb up a cargo net and back into the exhibit.
Scott says no one was ever in danger because the dry moat did its job.
That same chimp got into that moat 3 years ago.
Scott says they will review the layout of that electric fence to keep this from happening again.
