Jul 1, 2008 12:22 am US/Pacific
Have Bananas Will Travel, Oh No -- Moe Is Missing!
DEVORE, Calif.
Moe, a chimpanzee once owned by a West Covina couple that raised him in their home before being forced to give him to an animal shelter, has escaped from his cage in San Bernardino County and is currently at large.
Moe escaped Jungle Exotics, a business near Devore, on Friday, according to the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin in Ontario.
On Saturday, San Bernardino County Animal Control officers and volunteers searched for Moe in the densely forested area as a privately-owned helicopter circled overhead.
Michael McCasland, who says that he is a friend of Moe's owners, St. James and LaDonna Davis, told the newspaper he heard that the chimp pushed open his cage on Friday and walked to the caretaker's home at Jungle Exotics.
Moe then went to a nearby home that is being being remodeled, surprised workers there and disappeared.
"These 24 hours since he got away are crucial, just like looking for a child," he told the newspaper. "He has never escaped into the wild before and has no food or water out there."
McCasland says that he believes Moe may have gone into the San Bernardino National Forest after being upset by a recent fire in the area.
Moe has lived at Jungle Exotics since 2007.
St. James Davis brought Moe home from Tanzania in the 1960s, after the chimp's mother was killed by poachers, and he and his wife raised the chimp in their West Covina home as if he were their son.
In 1999, Moe was taken from their home after he bit a police officer and a female visitor.
While the Davis' were visiting Moe at the Animal Haven Ranch near Bakersfield to celebrate his birthday in 2005, two chimps in nearby cages attacked St. James Davis and almost killed him.
Moe had been a happy chimp since moving last year to Jungle Exotics, where his cage had a lookout tower that allowed him to watch the trains passing nearby, McCasland told the newspaper.
He said he is hopeful Moe will be found safe, but was concerned because he hasn't had to survive in the wild for about 40 years.
"My hope is that he will just come back because primates are known to do that," he told the newspaper. "My concern is the coyotes, rattlesnakes and lack of water.
St. James Davis has been severely disabled since being mauled by the other chimps.
La Donna Davis was at Jungle Exotics this the weekend, but was reportedly too upset to talk to the media.
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