carrying Rhesus monkeys<\/a>, which typically weigh around 16 pounds (7.7 kilograms) and are among the most medically studied animals on the planet. They were being housed at the Tulane University National Biomedical Research Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, which routinely provides primates to scientific research organizations, according to the university.\n <\/p>\n\n It is not clear who was transporting the monkeys or where they were being taken.\n <\/p>\n
\n Video shows monkeys crawling through tall grass on the side of Interstate 59 just north of Heidelberg, Mississippi, with wooden crates labeled \u201clive animals\u201d crumpled and strewn about.\n <\/p>\n
\n The sheriff\u2019s department initially said the monkeys were carrying diseases including herpes, but Tulane University said in a statement that the monkeys \u201care not infectious.\u201d The sheriff\u2019s department responded by saying the driver of the truck told law enforcement the monkeys were dangerous and needed to be handled using personal protective equipment.\n <\/p>\n
\n Tulane University said it is working with law enforcement. Mississippi Wildlife and Fisheries was also on site.\n <\/p>\n
\n The crash happened about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the state capital of Jackson. It is not clear what caused the truck to overturn.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heidelberg, Mississippi AP \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 Monkeys being transported on a Mississippi highway escaped captivity Tuesday after the truck carrying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-257939","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}