Chester Zoo Zoo evacuated after animal escape

C

Crabbit

Member
Was in Chester today at about 12:30 when staff started herding everybody into the animal houses and cafes. We were directed into the cafe by the jaguars. Found out from the staff that a chimp had escaped and they were trying to capture it.

After about 30 minutes everyone was directed to the main entrance as the zoo was being closed. A keeper said the chimp was still out and they were closing the zoo while they tried to capture it. Does anybody know if have managed to capture it?

There were at lot of very unhappy people giving the staff a hard time about the zoo closing. Can see their point after having spent over £50 to get in only to get chucked out an hour later. The zoo are offering refunds by post but lots of irate people wanted their money back immediately.
 
Crabbit said:
There were at lot of very unhappy people giving the staff a hard time about the zoo closing. Can see their point after having spent over £50 to get in only to get chucked out an hour later. The zoo are offering refunds by post but lots of irate people wanted their money back immediately.
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If they can't see the danger of an escaped chimp then maybe they should've been left behind "for their money's worth" :rolleyes:
 
We were directed into the cafe by the jaguars.
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Sounds pretty dangerous in itself!

CZJimmy said:
If they can't see the danger of an escaped chimp then maybe they should've been left behind "for their money's worth" :rolleyes:
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:) A bit of gene cleaning!?

Thankfully it sounds as though they are not 'out' in any public area that would risk them having to be shot.
 
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CZJimmy said:
If they can't see the danger of an escaped chimp then maybe they should've been left behind "for their money's worth" :rolleyes:
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Agreed if they cannot see any danager of an escaped Chimp they are prime candidates for one day winning a Darwin Award!
 
The staff will have a set procedure which they will follow and they will all know what their job is within that.With any luck none of the Chimps will need destroying as a result.
 
I keep my fingers crossed. Let us hope for the best and, yes, that no chimp need be "shot" (sound so clinical for a species 98,8% similar genetically to us Homo sapiens).

I am confident that all staff are properly trained for these emergencies and that all ends well.
 
There will be procedures which are followed in such circumstances but as a punter what I saw today was not very professional or effective.

A member of the keeping staff was running around randomly shouting to people to get into the jaguar house. We were sitting by the cafe at the jaguar house and I had to tell the staff in the cafe what was happening. After that they started bringing people into the cafe. 10 minutes later people were still wandering by and getting brought in by the staff.

It has been stated before that the zoo's management read this forum. I hope they do because after what I witnessed today they need to review the procedures and then practice them.

Thankfully it sounds like the chimps did not escape into a public area but it is inevitable that animals will and do escape. A well practiced set of procedures need to be in place to cope with this. Today appeared to be a shambles.

I will email the zoo with this information because I would rather speak up instead of saying nothing and I hope they see it as a positive. You need to hear negative things if there are going to be positive improvements. Hopefully they will see it this way.
 
Wow, all of them escaped? Let's hope all the chimps re-caught and no-one gets hurt.
 
Possibly, although it does seem that if one could escape then they all could, bearing in mind the two that escaped at Whipsnade were in a separate cage.
 
Chimps' break for lunch forces public from zoo | UK | Reuters

Reuters version of the story including these quotes from the spokeswoman which hasn't appeared in the other articles (that i know of)

"We had an army of chimps eating their way through the keeper's kitchen and the decision was taken, quite rightly, to evacuate,"

"By around 4 pm we had managed to get all the chimps back in their enclosure, some of them with very full bellies."

It's good news that no animals had to be shot!
 
Hopefully none of the animals will have been or will have to be put down as they escaped into the food prep area. And no members of public or staff were hurt.
 
LeeMac13 said:
Hopefully none of the animals will have been or will have to be put down as they escaped into the food prep area. And no members of public or staff were hurt.
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If the Reuters article is to be believed then all the animals were returned to the enclosure
 
I heard Gordon Reid being interviewed on Radio 5 Live just before 9pm. He was very calm and reassuringly Scottish. He explained that about a dozen chimps, including Boris, got through several doors into the kitchen area - but they were never outside the secure area (presumably the chimp house). They have not found any faults with the locks, but they will continue to investigate. He said that it may have been that doors that appeared to be closed were actually not locked (which I interpret as carelessness by a member of staff). He explained why chimps are dangerous and why the zoo was evacuated.
The only funny part was that Dalya Raphael;, the presenter of the Weekend News referred to him as Gordon McGregor at the start and the end of the interview.

Alan
 
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The image below was taken from the Manchester Evening News Article relating to todays event
 

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Briefly spoke to the woman on the right of the picture in the green polo shirt when we were leaving. She was getting it from all sides but at least she still had her sense of humour.

Glad to see the zoo is offering refunds. The 5000 people there today are the bread and butter of the zoo and are essential to Chester's ongoing success and plans. The small band of people on this forum may make fun of them but it is the 1.3 million punters each year that will make Natural Vision possible.
 
Crabbit said:
Glad to see the zoo is offering refunds. The 5000 people there today are the bread and butter of the zoo and are essential to Chester's ongoing success and plans. The small band of people on this forum may make fun of them but it is the 1.3 million punters each year that will make Natural Vision possible.
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Were you referring to me with that comment? If so, I was only commenting about the people who wanted a refund there and then, when there were more pressing matters at hand...

Crabbit said:
There were at lot of very unhappy people giving the staff a hard time about the zoo closing. Can see their point after having spent over £50 to get in only to get chucked out an hour later. The zoo are offering refunds by post but lots of irate people wanted their money back immediately.
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CZJimmy said:
If they can't see the danger of an escaped chimp then maybe they should've been left behind "for their money's worth" :rolleyes:
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