Recent footage taken at a zoo in China has emerging depicting a a monkey using a rock to smash its way through a glass enclosure in an attempt to escape.
The incident took place on the 20th of August at the Zhengzhou Zoo in Central China’s Henan Province.
In the video, a Colombian white-faced capuchin (Cebus capucinus) can be seen with a rock in its hand, examining the reinforced glass windows of the closure. Next, the monkey attempts to smash the glass and after repeated strikes, it eventually shatters into pieces.
A witness of the event who is known as Mr. Wang reporters later in the day that he had seen the monkey actually sharpening the stone before attempting to escape.
Mr. Wang said:
“The monkey was sharpening the stone, then it started hitting it on the glass. The monkey scared itself away, but it came back to take another look and even touched it,”
Tian Shuliao, staff member at Zhengzhou Zoo stated that this monkey actually knows how to use tools and manipulate objects into things he can use.
Shuliao said:
“This monkey is unlike other monkeys. This one knows how to use tools to break walnuts. When we feed walnuts to other monkeys, they only know to bite it. But it had never hit the glass before though. This is the first time. It’s toughened glass, so it would never have got out,”
Shuliao added:
“After it happened, we picked up all the rocks and took away all its ‘weapons’,”