Another installment of police chasing animals on the run, like this tiny Chihuahua in California, goes international after a chimpanzee escapes a zoo in Japan leading to a dramatic rescue caught on video. Maybe the chimpanzee got tired of seeing people take selfies for the millionth time.
The dramatic search and rescue was for a chimpanzee named Chacha reportsUs Weekly. Chacha is a 24-year-old male from the Yagiyama Zoological Park in Sendai, Japan.
According toUs Weekly, citing the Japan Times, zoo staff noticed one of the zoo's five chimps was missing at about 1:20 p.m. local time. The park was closed right after.
It would be two hours before Chacha was spotted in a residential neighborhood on top of power lines. That's where footage of the zoo staff trying to capture Chacha begins.
In the video staff is seen trying to get close to Chacha as he's sitting atop an electricity pole before shooting him with a tranquilizer. Immediately Chacha freaks out and lunges at one of the staff. He pulls the tranquilizer dart out and continues to walk across electricity wires until the tranquilizer begins to take effect with Chacha suddenly free falling at one point and yet somehow managing to grab onto one of the wires at the last second. Chacha's body begins to droop as he hangs and his grip starts to visibly loosen. The dramatic rescue would come to a close when Chacha finally fell off the wire and into a blanket set up by the rescuers below.
Agence France-Presse reportedly spoke to Yagiyama staff member Toshikazu Abe who said, "Despite the fall, he [Chacha] was unhurt and there is no threat to his life."
