Now that’s a funky monkey.
An escaped spider monkey in a pink tutu was rescued on the side of a Missouri highway after running up to a sheriff’s deputy and tugging on his pant leg in search of help.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said the clever 8-pound primate made its escape from a house it was staying at when it opened the front door and wandered into the great outdoors on Friday.
Deputies responded to a call for an animal complaint involving a monkey and came upon the animal near Highway 21 and Highway M around 4 p.m., about an hour southwest of St. Louis, the department wrote in a tongue-in-cheek Facebook post.
“After careful negotiations and some coaxing, Deputies were able to get close enough to go ‘hands on’ with the subject and bring this bananas situation under control without incident.”
In an adorable twist, the frightened spider monkey welcomed the rescue effort.
“The monkey actually kind of came up and tugged on his pant leg, and so he didn’t really know what to do,” Bissel told local outlet KTVI.
“He squatted down and was trying to offer some sort of safety. And he said the monkey reached out and grabbed his hands, and he said, ‘OK, I guess we’ll just stand here together until we figure out what to do.’”
A short time later, a woman contacted the department claiming to have been babysitting the diminutive simian when it made its break for freedom.
Deputies were able to determine the timeline of events and the woman brought the monkey back home, the outlet writes.
“This was not a typical afternoon for deputies on patrol in Jefferson County. But you gotta be ready to handle anything that comes at you,” Bissell told the outlet.
“Sometimes that’s a monkey.”
Spider monkeys are not permitted to be kept as pets in Missouri under the state’s Wildlife and Forestry Law, according to Missouri’s Great Ape Law, which considers them “dangerous wild animals.”
However, various species of apes can be imported, transported and sold for commercial purposes such as exhibition, breeding or scientific research in the state with a permit issued by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.