Stolen monkey found in Slovakia, ten years after theft from zoo
A rare little monkey has unexpectedly been found ten years after being stolen from a French zoo. In May 2015, criminals broke into ZooParc de Beauval (France’s most-visited zoo) and stole seventeen very rare monkeys. For years, there was no trace … until this summer.
Earlier this year, authorities in Slovakia seized several animals from a private individual during an investigation. Among those animals, to everyone’s surprise, was a golden lion tamarin. This species is extremely rare and strictly regulated in zoos: all individuals are officially the property of the Brazilian government. Private persons are not allowed to keep them.
A veterinarian examined the animal and discovered a microchip in the body of the little monkey, which was only about twenty centimeters long. That chip made it clear that it was a female who had been stolen in 2015 from ZooParc de Beauval. Zoo director Rodolphe Delord confirmed the finding to the French newspaper La Nouvelle République.
Delord suspects that the female was smuggled out via a dealer in Germany. A second chip was apparently implanted in her body to hide her origin. “But we were able to identify her without any risk of mistake, because our electronic chip system is foolproof,” says the director.
First recovered monkey
The discovery is unique: so far, it is the only recovered animal of the seven golden lion tamarins, ten silvery marmosets (zilveroestiti’s), and two turtles that were stolen in May 2015. The thieves acted in a very targeted way: they cut through a fence, covered a camera, and forced open a door of the tropical greenhouse. Then they were able to take the monkeys, who were in small night quarters, away.
Delord hopes that the now older monkey can return to Beauval so she can spend her final years there. Whether that is possible remains unclear: the legal cooperation between France and Slovakia is limited. Golden lion tamarins live to be about twenty years old. In the Netherlands, they can be seen at ZooParc Overloon and Wildlands Emmen.
zooflits.nl
