Monkeys escape from Alpha Genesis research facility in South Carolina

A police search is underway after 43 monkeys escaped from a research facility in South Carolina on Wednesday evening.

According to their website, police in Yemassee, Beaufort County said the rhesus macaque primates escaped from Alpha Genesis, a company that provides “non-human primate products and bioresearch services.”

The monkeys were a group of “very young females” that had never been used for testing. A spokesman for Alpha Genesis confirmed to police that the animals are “too young to transmit disease,” according to a police statement.

“Alpha Genesis is currently keeping an eye on the primates and is working to attract them with food,” police said Thursday afternoon.

According to police, traps were also set and officers used thermal imaging cameras to recapture the animals.

“Residents are strongly encouraged to secure doors and windows to prevent these animals from entering their homes,” the Yemassee Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. Anyone who finds a monkey should not interact with it and instead call 911, it said.

The company works with monkeys to conduct clinical trials, including to treat brain diseases, and says it has “one of the largest and most comprehensive non-human primate facilities designed specifically for monkeys in the United States.”

Alpha Genesis did not immediately respond to a late-night request for comment from NBC News.

The company won a federal contract to operate a colony of 3,500 monkeys on Morgan Island, also known as Monkey Island, off the coast of South Carolina.

The Beaufort County Post and Courier newspaper reported that there have been primate outbreaks in the area several times, including in May of this year and in 2016, when 19 primates escaped security at Alpha Genesis before being killed for six hours were later recaptured.

In 2022, three monkeys escaped after a traffic accident in rural Pennsylvania.