Cartridge Monkey

Cheeky chimp gives primates and monkeys a clean name

Friday 26 January, 2007

A cheeky little chimp has given her monkey pals something of a mixed reputation after she escaped from her enclosure.

Judy, a chimpanzee at the Little Rock Zoo in Arkansas, got out of her enclosure after a member of staff left the door unlocked. Once out, monkey business was on the menu for Judy, as she headed to the kitchen.

After rifling through storage cupboards, she checked out the refrigerator. Following a few cartons of juice, Judy went to the bathroom, where she proceeded to… clean the toilet!

"She went in the bathroom and picked up a toilet brush and cleaned the toilet. Her technique was good enough to make me think she must have done it before," said primate keeper Ann Rademacher.

Judy was a house pet before arriving at the zoo in the 1980s, with suggestions that she may have learnt to be the cleanest primate in the monkey kingdom there.

After a brief return to the kitchen to wipe down the fridge, Judy took a nap, enabling handlers to return her to her enclosure.

A Big Cats in Britain survey in December revealed that a monkey house pet was not uncommon in the UK, with almost 500 monkeys kept in the nation's homes.

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Cheeky chimp gives primates and monkeys a clean name

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