Enlarge image
Police car in front of Dallas Zoo entrance (January 13)
Photo: Shakfat Anowar/AP
Dallas police have recovered two monkeys that had previously disappeared from the zoo.
The animals were discovered in an abandoned house near the zoo, the police said.
Accordingly, the emergency services followed a tip on the whereabouts of the monkeys.
The two emperor tamarins were then found in a closet in the otherwise almost empty house south of Dallas.
They were returned to the zoo.
According to the police, there were no arrests.
The monkeys had previously disappeared in the wake of a series of mysterious incidents at the Texas city's zoo.
Employees noticed the two monkeys were missing on Monday morning.
A search for the animals on the zoo grounds was initially unsuccessful.
Dallas police said the emperor tamarins' enclosure appeared to have been opened by a "deliberate cut."
She assumed "that the animals were taken out of the enclosure on purpose."
Emperor tamarins are small primates native to the southwestern Amazon.
Their name comes from their distinctive mustache, which resembles that of German Emperor Wilhelm II.
A series of strange incidents have taken place at the Dallas Zoo in recent weeks.
The zoo was forced to close on January 13 after a clouded leopard escaped through a hole in the fence of its enclosure.
The big cat was finally found on the zoo grounds.
About a week later, a lappet-faced vulture died in the zoo of an apparently unnatural death.
The 35-year-old vulture named Pin had a "wound," according to the zoo.
The zoo offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the incident.
"Everyone is a suspect at this point - internally and externally," said zoo director Gregg Hudson.
Because the dead bird of prey belongs to an endangered species, even federal officials got involved in the investigation.
phw/AFP/AP