ST. LOUIS — City animal control crews on Friday were trying to find at least two monkeys reported to be loose in north St. Louis' O'Fallon neighborhood.
Erin Ford, a spokesperson for the city Health Department, said a resident on Thursday afternoon said they saw the animals on Red Bud Avenue.
She said some were also spotted Friday in the vicinity of O'Fallon Park, including by a city police officer.
"We have no ideas right now where the monkeys came from," Ford said.
She said it's illegal in the city to own an exotic animal such as a monkey.
Ford said the health agency is advising people not to approach them or try to lure them into a car or a cage and instead to call animal control.
She said a primate expert at the St. Louis Zoo says the monkeys appear to be Vervet monkeys, based on photos taken by some people who said they saw them.
"We don't want people to interact with them in any way," Ford said. "They can be unpredictable. They're intelligent and fast. They can have a nasty bite."
Ford said the department first became aware of the monkeys through a social media post Thursday.
Initially on Friday, department officials said they believed there were four monkeys. Later in the day, however, the agency changed the number because "we haven't seen authentic photos of four together," Ford said.
Copyright St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Reprinted with permission.