Authorities urged residents to keep their doors and windows locked to avoid an unexpected monkey encounter and to not interact if they see one. Officers are setting traps and using thermal imaging cameras to catch the primates.

The escaped rhesus monkeys are all young and female, weighing about six or seven pounds each. Because of their age and size, the monkeys have not yet been tested on and carry no disease, according to police.

The Alpha Genesis facility breeds cynomolgus, rhesus and capuchin monkeys for government, university and private industry research projects. It has worked on vaccine development for decades, including projects related to the coronavirus vaccine.

Alpha Genesis, which opened in 2003, won a $4.6 million contract in 2020 to work with pathogen-free macaque monkey breeding colonies, according to procurement data released by the federal Pandemic Response Accountability Committee.

The facility had at least four incidents where monkeys escaped enclosures between 2014 and 2016, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department. In 2022, the facility received a warning from USDA, citing additional violations of animal misconduct throughout that year.

Other areas of Lowcountry have also seen primates on the loose this year. Bradley, a Japanese macaque, escaped from a private habitat in Walterboro in May and was shot dead by a local resident a few days later, according to Colleton County officials.