Nature & Environment

Baboon mass hysteria baffles zoo workers

By T.K. Randall
August 3, 2013 ·  23 comments

Image Credit: Thomas Netsch Staff were perplexed when the group of 112 baboons at Emmen Zoo started to exhibit signs of hysteria, huddling together in fear and showing little interest in eating. "The first deviation we saw was on Monday evening," said biologist Wijbren Landman. "We were going to bring them to the night enclosure - it normally takes a minute for all 112 to enter, but it took more than an hour to get them all inside. Then the next morning it was a problem to get them out, and then they were immediately sitting in the trees and on the rocks doing nothing at all."

Fortunately the baboons have started to gradually return to their normal behavior however zoo workers have yet to find an explanation for what happened. "What frightened them? We don't know, it's a mystery," said Landman. "There have been many suggestions - an earthquake, escaped snakes, aliens..."[!gad]Staff were perplexed when the group of 112 baboons at Emmen Zoo started to exhibit signs of hysteria, huddling together in fear and showing little interest in eating. "The first deviation we saw was on Monday evening," said biologist Wijbren Landman. "We were going to bring them to the night enclosure - it normally takes a minute for all 112 to enter, but it took more than an hour to get them all inside. Then the next morning it was a problem to get them out, and then they were immediately sitting in the trees and on the rocks doing nothing at all."

Fortunately the baboons have started to gradually return to their normal behavior however zoo workers have yet to find an explanation for what happened. "What frightened them? We don't know, it's a mystery," said Landman. "There have been many suggestions - an earthquake, escaped snakes, aliens..."

Source: BBC News | Comments (23)

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