By Aimen Amzein and Maha Suliman.
Benghazi, 10 November 2014:
All but two of more than a dozen monkeys released from . . .[restrict]Benghazi Zoo yesterday have been returned to their enclosures but not before they baffled residents and posed for pictures, roaming the near deserted city.
After months of bitter clashes in and around Benghazi and four weeks of fierce fighting in the city centre, residents take things as they come. However the sight of a 100-pound baboon sunning itself on a water tower has given even the most hardened local cause to raise an eyebrow.
It appears the monkeys were released from the zoo in Ras Al-Beida not far from Al-Jalaa Hospital. One resident living nearby told the Libya Herald that in the absence of any real security at the zoo, young boys often went there. He said it was widely known now in the area that a group often seen at the zoo had released them.
The monkeys, mostly baboons, were spotted as far away as the Salmani district. Two were killed in attempts to recapture them. “Certainly in this they were not experts” the Ras Al-Baida resident said of the good-willed efforts of local people to return the monkeys and adding that as far as he knew two sill remained at large.
He said the monkeys’ escape had generated a certain amount of fear with many afraid they would catch diseases from monkey bites.
Follow Maha Suliman on Twitter: @Mahasye
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