Great Escapes: What Happens When Animals Make a Run for It?

two thousand and five. For seventeen years, Pink Floyd had traveled through Texas, Arkansas, Wisconsin, and Louisiana as well a free bird. There are no updates on it as of this recording, but that Pink Floyd is not to be confused with another flamingo on the run from an aviary, the Pink Floyd of Utah's Salt Lake. Both of these birds were able to assescape because their keepers hadn't kept their wing feathers clipped, and they simply flew away. Today,

let's talk about some daring animal escapes. I will say most of these stories have happy endings, but we do discuss one injury and a few later deaths. Just want to give you a heads up in case you frequently visit does thedogdie dot com up or if like me, you're a little bit on edge right now? Okay, okay, first step, let's talk about the Saint Louis six. In twenty seventeen, six steers and Saint Louis were sent to a slaughterhouse, but they were not about to go quietly.

Led by a huge steer named Chico, six of them broke out, as supposedly agitated by the rumblings of an approaching thunderstorm. Likely scared by their freedom and the ruckus had caused, they ran through the streets of Saint Louis for hours. They evaded everybody while capturing the attention of the media, animal lovers, and the local community. Authorities eventually rounded the crew up, but by then the public had

also begun a campaign for their freedom. A non profit animal sanctuary called the Gentle Barn stepped in to negotiate with the slaughterhouse, which gave them twenty four hours to find the Steers a new home, and that they did. The six were sent to a rescue until enough funds could be raised to build a new facility in Missouri

especially for them. Although one bull, a named Spirit, had to be euthanized due to injuries sustained during his adventures, and another Eddy has since died, the other four, named Houdini, Johnny cash Rue, and their fearless leader Chico, now live happily as therapy cows at the Gentle Barn location in Tennessee. Next up the Dania Beach monkeys of Broward County, Florida. In nineteen forty eight, fifty green monkeys escaped from the

Anthropoid Ape Research Foundation or ARFF. Green monkeys are a species with fur in shades of gray, gold and a little bit of green that weigh only a couple of pounds or about a kilo. The ARFF was opened in the early nineteen forties in South Florida as a zoo and provide primates from Africa for the research for the polio vaccine. After the monkeys escape, some were captured, but

the others started lives in the Florida wild. Now, more than seventy years later, scientists from Florida Atlantic University have been able to trace a colony of thirty six monkeys thriving in the thick mangrove forest near the Fort Lauderdale Airport to those remaining escapees. How partially because of that green coloration, the researchers photographed every monkey at Dania Beach

and recorded various traits to help identify their species. They also tested genetic markers and confirmed that the Dania Beach monkeys are in fact descendants of those from West Africa. Today, there's nonprofit the Vervet Project, whose goal is to build a sanctuary for the monkeys to keep them safe from human interactions. Of course, these monkeys aren't the only primates to have broken free. The San Diego Zoo had an orangutan known for pulling escape backs by the name of

Ken Allen. He first got out in nineteen eighty five, scaling a wall and then strolling down the zoo's pedestrian pathway and taking in the sites before being walked back to his enclosure, which wasn't very enclosed. Zoo staff increased the height of the wall by four feet that's a little over a meter, but that didn't stop can Allen, or the great Ape and even some of his ape friends escaped an additional nine times. He was even known

to use tools to do it. When he was young, he had unscrew the bolts of his nursery at night and then put the pen back together before his caretakers arrived the following morning. One time, he and his roommate Vicki, used a discarded crowbar that he found in his pen to open a window. After several escapes, the zoo tried electric wire and even distracted him by att two female

rang attends to his enclosure. Nothing worked. Eventually, his female counterparts A Jane and Kumeng picked up the behavior and made their getaway using a window squeegee. A Ken Allen died from cancer in the year two thousand, at twenty nine years old. His status as a local hero long confirmed. The Los Angeles Zoo has also had its fair share

of animal escapes. Of Virginia, a wolf escaped numerous times during the seventies and eighties by climbing trees and fences, and Evelyn, a Western Lowland gorilla, escaped her living arrangements at least five times. Evelyn was creative with her getaways, as she successfully jumped off the back of another gorilla to go over a wall and used overgrown vines to pull herself up and over the wall or to swing over the twelve foot mote. That time, she didn't even

leave the zoo perimeter. She just roamed around for a little over an hour and was, according to the Los Angeles Times, behaving like a huge child. Evelyn was born in the Los Angeles Zoo in nineteen seventy six, and she lived to the truly impressive age of forty six years, perhaps partially due to her irrepressible personality. Today's episode is based on the article Great Escapes five wild Animals who busted out and went on the run on how Stuffworks

dot Com, written by Alison Trautner. Brainstuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the Airheartradio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.