More than Forty monkeys have escaped from a research facility in South Carolina Wednesday, prompting warnings for local residents to secure their doors and windows. The fugitive monkeys had not yet been captured as of Friday morning.

Here’s what we know so far:

Where exactly did the monkeys escape in South Carolina?

The primates broke free from Alpha Genesis in Yemassee, Beaufort County, South Carolina.

The company confirmed that 43 rhesus monkey primates have escaped from an enclosure at one of the company’s facilities.

Yemassee police said Thursday that baited traps were set up and thermal imaging cameras were used in an attempt to capture the monkeys.

“Residents are strongly advised to lock doors and windows to prevent these animals from entering their homes,” police said. “If you see any of the escaped animals, contact 911 immediately and do not approach them.”

How did the monkeys escape from the research facility?

Greg Westergaard, CEO of Alpha Genesis, told CBS News on Thursday that a caretaker accidentally failed to secure a door in the enclosure, allowing the monkeys to roam freely.

“It’s really a follow-the-leader kind of thing. You see one person go and the others go,” he said. “It was a group of 50 and 7 stayed behind and 43 fled out the door.”

He told CBS News on Friday that while they have not captured any of the monkeys, they are staying close to the facility.

“They’re just crazy monkeys jumping around and playing with each other,” he said. “It’s kind of a playground situation here.”

Westergaard said the company has set out baited traps, but the monkeys are not going into them yet.

“They jump down and get the food and then jump back up onto the fence and tree line,” he added. “They look at us the same way we look at them.”

He acknowledged that it would be a long process to get them back and that they did not want to chase the monkeys because it would scare them and run away.

“We have them very close,” Westergaard said. “This is all as we want to see.”

What kind of monkeys are they?

The escaped monkeys are rhesus monkey primates, which have brown fur with red faces and ears. They have short cropped hair on their heads, which accentuates their very expressive faces.

The rhesus monkeys are Old World Asian monkeys found mainly in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Southeast Asia and China.

According to the New England Primate Conservancy, rhesus monkeys were imported into the US in the 1970s for laboratory biomedical research.

Rhesus macaques are “bold, extremely curious and adventurous monkeys” and the species is “highly adaptable to living with humans,” the conservation organization says.

The typical diet of the rhesus monkey includes roots, fruits, seeds and bark, as well as insects and small animals.

What did they use the monkeys to test?

According to its website, Alpha Gensis breeds monkeys and provides “non-human primate products and bioresearch services” around the world. The company’s clinical trials reportedly include research into progressive brain disorders.

Local authorities said Thursday that the escaped primates were “very young females weighing approximately 2 to 3 kg” and had never been used for testing due to their age.

Alpha Genesis says its staff of veterinary technicians and animal specialists work with cynomolgous, rhesus and capuchin monkeys.

The Post and Courier newspaper reported last year that Alpha Genesis had won a federal contract to monitor a colony of 3,500 rhesus monkeys on South Carolina’s Morgan Island, known as “Monkey Island.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed in a statement that the monkeys previously lived on Morgan Island as “free-range monkeys” and were brought to the Alpha Genesis facility “to be conditioned to be around humans.”

The facility is registered with the CDC as an importer of non-human primates, meaning it “must comply with standards for the import, quarantine and use of NHPs,” the agency said.

The CDC added that “the risk to the public is low as long as people do not approach or come into contact with the monkeys.”

How often do research monkeys escape?

This isn’t the first time primates have escaped from Alpha Genesis.

Eight years ago, 19 primates escaped from the company facility, but were recaptured approximately six hours later.

CBS affiliate WCSC in Charleston reported at the time that local officials said the escapes were not rare, but that the monkeys generally return to the compound because they know there is food there.

“Every few years there will be one or two that come out. We’ve never had that many,” Westergaard told CBS News on Friday.

Last year, dozens of laboratory monkeys escaped in Pennsylvania after a truck carrying 100 of the animals crashed. All primates were later charged.

Research facility has a history of USDA violations

An investigation by CBS affiliate WTOC found that Alpha Genesis received eight violations from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2022, including a housing facilities violation and a veterinary violation.

The report found that in the first eight months of 2022, six monkeys were placed in the wrong enclosures – one animal was found dead from ‘trauma caused by the animals living in the enclosure’, and four animals required subsequent veterinary care.

WTOC also reported that during that same period there were six separate occasions when monkeys escaped from their enclosure. After these escapes, the company repaired the chain link fence and removed some of the cages that had been breached, the station reports.

Alpha Genesis was last inspected by the USDA in May 2024 and no violations were found. That report shows that there were at least 6,701 monkeys on the property at the time of the inspection, WTOC reports.

Anna Schecter contributed to this report.