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Escaped Monkey Prompts Audubon Zoo Shutdown

Sam DCruz
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A 33-pound monkey escaped its enclosure at the Audubon Zoo Friday morning, prompting an hour-long shutdown of the facility while zookeepers wrangled the animal back into captivity and made sure the area was safe.

The monkey, an 11-year-old black-and-white African Colobus named Kivuli, was spotted on the loose at about 10:17 a.m. Zoo officials ushered park-goers indoors and shut the gates of the facility, according to Audubon spokespeople and eyewitnesses.

Kivuli is a Swahili word meaning "Ghost." The monkey was born on Halloween, according to the zoo.

Animal handlers got Kivuli back into his enclosure at 11:09 a.m., and the zoo repoened about five minutes later.

A zoo spokesman says there will be a review to determine how the animal escaped.

Jason Saul served as WWNO's Director of Digital Services. In 2017 he took a position at BirdNote, in Seattle.

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