A chimpanzee named Chacha escaped from a zoo in Japan on Thursday, leading police and zookeepers on a wild two-hour chase before the angry primate was sedated and fell from a power pole.
The ape fell into a blanket held by a dozen workers, surviving his adventure with only minor injuries, The Associated Press reported.
News footage showed him atop the power pole, screaming at people below. After being shot with a sedative arrow, Chacha pulled the dart from his back and dangled from an electrical wire before losing his grip, the AP said.
Officials think Chacha escaped through a hole in a fence at the Yagiyama Zoological Park in Sendai. Chacha is one of five chimpanzees kept at the park, The
Japan Times reported.
Park officials closed the zoo during the chase and students at a nearby school were ordered to stay inside the school until the animal was caught.
“When I saw (the chimpanzee) on television, it was quite big, so we thought it was dangerous to let the children out,” school Vice Principal Takashi Yamaguchi said.
Tohoku Electric Power Co. said a brief power outage affected about 1,848 homes during the chase,
The Guardian reported.
The animal was captured about 270 yards from the zoo. The male chimpanzee is 24 years old, which is considered to be middle age. The zoo remained closed Friday as officials investigate the escape.
The escape was a distraction for Twitter users.