Suspect arrested, but stolen zoo animals still at risk

The survival prospects of three animals stolen last week from the Elmvale Jungle Zoo — a lemur, a tortoise and a baby gibbon — are “not great” if they were released into the wild, said zoo spokesperson Marina Huygen.

The OPP’s Huronia West detachment announced Friday that Ottawa’s Alex Perlmutter, 21, was arrested in Mount Al- bert in connection with the break and enter and theft of the Elmvale animals.

However, Huygen said there’s no news on the animals’ location, which is worrisome to zoo staff. She said JC the lemur and Agnes the gibbon follow tailored diets ripe with fruits and vegetables — JC favours grapes and bananas, while Agnes can’t have citrus but loves peppers — and if they are loose outside, they are at risk.

“We don’t really have a whole lot of that (food) in our Canadian wildlife, so I would say (survival is) not great,” Huygen said, noting she didn’t know if the animals were free or in captivity.

“They’re used to being fed a certain diet the same time every day by their same handlers, so they’re used to a routine that they definitely haven’t been receiving (after the theft).”

The same goes for Stanley. For seven years at the zoo, the 18inch-long tortoise ate lettuce, hay and tomatoes — tough to find outdoors in Ontario at this time of year.

Huygen said zoo owners and staff are asking people to “keep their eyes and ears open” for out-of-place animals near their homes. “If you see a gibbon or a black-and-white lemur out in the open, that’s out of the ordinary,” she said, asking that such sightings be reported to police.