Baboon seen monkeying around NJ highway, house

A baboon climbs rocks in his enclosure at Berlin's zoo May 6, 2011. / AFP/Getty Images

JACKSON, N.J. - A baboon is on the loose in New Jersey.

Police say they received two calls Thursday afternoon from people who saw the monkey.

One came from a driver who said the animal was near Interstate 195. The second came from a woman who said a baboon was sitting on her back porch in Jackson.

The baboon may have escaped from the nearby Six Flags Great Adventure's Monkey Jungle. The park has 150 baboons.

Kenyan baboon plays mother to bush baby

Park officials say they are not positive one of theirs is missing because the animals are not counted daily. The Great Adventure baboons are fenced in and implanted with microchips.

Officials say anyone who spots the roaming baboon should call police — and not approach the animal, even though baboons are not typically aggressive.

[thenewtman]

If the woman who found the baboon in her backyard had a camera, she should have taken photos of the chimp before they came and took it away. Then she could have sold it to the wire services. That's a great story. Particularly the fact the Six Flags Zoo did not know if one of their chimps was missing because they hadn't counted them. They could put some sort of an identification tag on a collar so that the chimp could be identified. It's true that the baboons are not aggressive, but would probably bite if someone tried to grab them. Keep some bananas handy and wait for the zoo to come pick them up. Actually, I would like to have a chimp for a pet.