Zoo’s lemur returned to safety, thanks to 5-year-old
Maki made it.
A 21-year-old lemur that went missing from the San Francisco Zoo earlier this week has been found safe and returned home — thanks to the attentive eyes of a 5-year old boy.
On Wednesday, San Francisco police released a statement saying that Maki, a ring-tailed male lemur, had been removed from its habitat and was missing.
“Officers arrived on scene and discovered forced entry to the animal enclosure where the lemur was housed,” police said.
Investigators from the SFPD Burglary Unit assumed the lead in the investigation and reached out to the public, asking for help in locating the endangered animal.
On Thursday evening Maki was located in Daly City, just a few miles south of the zoo.
“Around 5pm, we got a report he was in the playground area of the Hope Lutheran Church. We contained him until staff from the zoo took him back home,” Daly City police tweeted.
According to San Francisco’s ABC7, Maki was spotted by a 5-year-old boy, James Trinh, who saw the missing animal outside his day care.
“The parents were calling and saying there’s a lemur out on the playground,” Sarah Riggs, a teacher at Hope Lutheran Day School, said.
“My son saw Maki walking around the day care as he and my wife were leaving around 5 p.m.,” the boy’s dad, Sam Trihn, wrote on Twitter.
The incident remains an open and active investigation, police said. No arrests havebeen made.