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Some smart monkeys from a Texas research facility had a brief romp on the outside

Drivers on a nearby road thought they were seeing a big dog

With nothing but their wits, a little teamwork, and a 55-gallon barrel, four baboons jumped the fence at a Texas research facility and got a taste of life in the wild.

It didn’t last long. They were tranquilized and back in their enclosures within about 30 minutes, according to a press release from the Texas Biomedical Institute, a private research facility that uses baboons for medical research. They were spotted by an “animal capture team,” per the facility’s press release, which ran the baboons down, hollering at one as it pranced down nearby Military Drive, arousing the concern of some drivers.

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“OK, that’s a big dog,” Janelle Bouton said to herself when she first saw one of the baboons hop out of the bushes, followed by men in protective medical gear, she told local San Antonio station KSAT12.

The team “used verbal and hand-signaling commands,” explained John Bernal, the attending vet at the facility. “Our team was ensuring the baboon was not hurt by traffic on Military Drive.”

“It’s a very rare situation — unprecedented, actually,” Bernal told the local news station. The six-acre enclosure in which the baboons are kept has been in use for 35 years, according to the research center.

“The barrel was lifted and it was lifted in a strategic position in proximity to the wall of the corral, and one of the baboons said, ‘I’m going to try and make this leap.’ He leaped up on top of the wall — and once that occurs, it’s a typical monkey-see, monkey-do, and others follow,” Bernal added.

But it’s not the first time monkeys successfully executed a great escape from the facility. The U.S. Department of Agriculture fined the facility $25,714 in 2011 after a 2010 escape of two baboons who then hurt one of the facility’s employees, and a 2009 incident in which a young monkey escaped in frigid weather, suffered severe hypothermia, and had to be euthanized, according the USDA reports obtained by VICE News.

The Texas research facility is home to some 2,500 animals that it says play a crucial role in a variety of medical research, from osteoporosis to infectious diseases. The group of employees that tracked the loose baboons down were wearing protective medical gear, but the facility says the baboons were not being used in research and were not infected with any disease.

Still, PETA is calling for the facility to be shut down immediately, citing the past escapes and poor treatment of animals at the facility.