Zoo's spider monkey accidentally tranquillised with wayward dart intended for runaway gibbon

An unsuspecting spider monkey was hit by a wayward tranquilliser dart as a guilty gibbon made a getaway. On Tuesday morning gibbon Vilson escaped from his enclosure at Wellington Zoo in New Zealand. Zoo animal care general manager Mauritz Basson said staff got out the tranquilliser guns and aimed at Vilson, a well known escape artist.



But the 10 gram dart with a "fluffy tail" was caught in strong winds and sailed past Vilson and jabbed into three-year-old spider monkey Winnie, who was simply hanging out in her own enclosure. Winnie was promptly given veterinarian treatment and revived after five minutes and is now "100 percent", Basson said. The spider monkey and gibbon were roughly the same weight so the dart would not have caused her any issues, he said.





While Vilson was out of his enclosure, the public were kept away from the area and not at risk of being hit by a wayward dart. No individual staff member was to blame but the zoo would do more practice of shooting the darts in strong winds. Zoo primates and carnivores life science manager Paul Horton said the darts were not needed for Vilson as the gibbon was coaxed back to his habitat after finding his bearings.



A long branch overhanging the open-topped enclosure may have provided Wilson with a path to the greater confines of the zoo. He was probably stunned and disoriented after falling in to the moat surrounding Gibbon Island. "The first thing he saw was land ahead and he went for it but it was the wrong side of the moat." Gibbons cannot swim and dislike water. "He was never in mortal danger but he was keen not to linger."