A dozen squirrel monkeys were stolen from a Louisiana zoo on Saturday, less than two days before a pair of monkeys were stolen from the Dallas Zoo, officials say.
The person who stole the animals in Louisiana broke into Zoosiana in Broussard — a city about 7 miles southeast of Lafayette — just before midnight and stole the animals from a squirrel monkey exhibit, the zoo said in a Facebook post.
“It’s a very sad situation, obviously, we’re heartbroken,” Zoosania General Manager Matt Oldenburg told NBC affiliate KLAF of Lafayette.
The zoo’s veterinarian and animal care team have inspected the remaining monkeys and determined “there are no other apparent issues affecting their health or well being.”
Zoo officials are working with local, state and federal agencies to investigate the theft, according to the Facebook post. Broussard Police Chief Vance Olivier told KLAF that authorities are reviewing surveillance footage from around the zoo to try to locate a suspect, who will face a burglary charge.
The theft happened less than two days before a pair of emperor tamarin monkeys were reported missing from their enclosure at the Dallas Zoo in what investigators said they believed was a theft. Those monkeys were found Tuesday in the closet of an abandoned home in Lancaster, a city about 16 miles south of Dallas. The monkeys have been returned to the Dallas Zoo, no arrests have been made and an investigation into the animals’ disappearance is ongoing, the department said.
The theft of the monkeys in Dallas was the latest in a string of suspicious events to occur at the zoo: a 35-year-old endangered vulture was found dead there on Jan. 21 with what authorities described as “an unusual wound.”
Earlier in the month, a clouded leopard escaped her enclosure after it was intentionally cut, according to authorities, who said the langur monkey habitat area was also cut but none of those animals escaped. The leopard was eventually captured and returned to her enclosure….
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