Paris zoo to reopen after last truant baboons found

A spokeswoman for the National Museum of Natural History said two females and a baby were tracked down at around 4:15 am (0315 GMT).

Paris’s main zoo was set to reopen Saturday after the last of around 50 baboons who had escaped from their enclosure were found overnight, the zoo authorities said.

Baboons preen each other at the Paris Zoological Park in the Bois de Vincennes in the east of Paris, France, October 23, 1995. Some fifty baboons escaped January 26, 2018 from their enclosure and most have been recaptured. Picture taken October 23, 1995. (Reuters File)

A spokeswoman for the National Museum of Natural History said two females and a baby were tracked down at around 4:15 am (0315 GMT).

The zoo is expected to reopen around noon.

“The professionalism of the wildlife teams at the Paris zoo allowed for a happy ending ... we are analysing the precise circumstances of the incident,” the spokeswoman said.

The baboons remain in the area of the “grand rocher”, a landmark central mountain inaccessible to the public at the zoo in the lush Vincennes area of the French capital.

The breakout was first noticed by a zoo worker, who saw the primates gathering in a service corridor used by personnel late Friday morning.

Safety procedures were immediately triggered, the zoo said in a statement, with a total of 60 firefighters, 20 police and all of the zoo’s staff mobilised to capture the animals.

None of the baboons reached public areas and the evacuation was ordered as a precaution, the zoo said.