Stories2 min(s) read
Published 12:48 25 May 2021 GMT
A woman has been branded "stupid and lucky" after breaking into a monkey enclosure to allegedly feed the animals Cheetos.
In shocking footage of the incident, the woman can be seen entering a shallow pool of water at El Paso Zoo in Texas and approaching the two endangered spider monkeys to feed them.
She stops on a ledge under a waterfall in the enclosure, and the animals jump from an island in the middle onto a rock to get closer to her.
The monkeys then nervously take the Cheetos from her hands, and when they back away, she throws more of the snacks onto the ground before she is filmed wading out of the water in the enclosure.
Watch the shocking footage below:ABC 7 reports that the director of the El Paso Zoo, Joe Montisano, said that the trespassing woman was both "stupid and lucky".
He added that the zoo was planning to press charges against her.
The zoo is now taking action to ensure that a similar incident does not happen in the future by installing cameras and modifying the existing fences around the enclosure.
Mason Kleist, a zookeeper at the facility, said: "These are primates we're talking about, they could do some substantial damage to you.
"They may be small monkey's but they can take you to the ground if they wanted to."
The woman did not just endanger herself by jumping into the monkey enclosure, but the two animals themselves as she could have made them sick with the Cheetos.
The zoo explained that they have a specialized diet and any deviations have the potential to cause stomach problems and sickness.
Zookeepers said that the woman's actions have also damaged the facility's relationship with the two endangered spider monkeys - Libby and Sunday.
Kleist said: "It takes years to build trust with these animals and for someone to come in there for five minutes for a video on Instagram or whatever just ruins years of work.
"It's going to take a long time to get them back to where they were and training."
However, this was not the only damage that the woman had the potential to inflict, and she could have also passed on Covid-19 to the endangered animals.
Kleist added: "Anything that we have they could get as well so Covid is no different.
"We took the necessary steps to prevent them from getting that, so for someone to just go in there and give them food from their hands could just ruin that."
