Gendarmes recover 11 of 13 monkeys stolen from French zoo, several suspects arrested

The theft and discovery

Thieves broke into the small animal refuge in Lescar, near Pau in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, during a night in late October. BFMTV gives the date of the theft as 26 October, while 20 Minutes places it in the night of 25 to 26 October. Initial reports listed 14 monkeys as missing, but one of them was found hidden inside the park within a few hours. The loss was confirmed when the park opened on the day it was discovered, and the security window of the monkeys' enclosure, which can only be unlocked from inside, was found open.

The park's manager told 20 Minutes that the intruders forced doors with a chisel and smashed anti-intrusion windows with a crowbar, and that video surveillance filmed them. Most of the animals were marmosets and pinché tamarins, a species classed as threatened with extinction in the wild, according to the zoo's own account and to Le Soir.

Recovery and arrests

As of 30 October, the gendarmerie had found 11 of the 13 monkeys reported stolen, according to N-tv, Le Soir and VRT NWS. Several people were arrested in Tarbes in the Hautes-Pyrénées. BFMTV reports that the recovery followed a large operation carried out on the evening of Thursday, 29 October, near Tarbes. Two animals remained unaccounted for, according to N-tv.

A source close to the investigation told AFP that the people arrested do not belong to an animal trafficking network that authorities had already identified. The zoo credited its security system with the speed of the recovery. In a Facebook post, Exotic Park said the system had allowed investigators to trace the animals back to the people who held them.

“It was based on this system that things could go so fast and trace back to the holders.”

The animals and the park

The Lescar park houses about 300 animals, and more than half of them were rescued after mistreatment or illegal trade. According to the zoo director, Guillaume Darzacq, the stolen monkeys included whole families with young. He said they would fetch a considerable sum on the black market.

“Entire families, with their young.”

Darzacq told BFMTV that the recovered monkeys were in shock and did not behave as they normally do. He said that the animals were beginning to regain trust, adding that they were coming back to one another.

“They are coming back to one another.”

Questions that remain

Some commentators online questioned the security of the park, which the zoo rejects by pointing to its alarms, cameras and night staff. The investigation is continuing in order to find the last animals still missing. Darzacq said the surviving monkeys were kept in a small hiding place inside their enclosure, where they felt safe.