A 24-year-old man has been arrested in Texas in connection with the theft of emperor tamarin monkeys from the Dallas Zoo, the scene for many weeks of mysterious misdeeds, city police said on Friday.
• Read also: Two missing Dallas Zoo monkeys found alive
• Read also: Two monkeys stolen from Dallas Zoo
• Read also: Vulture killed, panther escaped: what’s going on at the Dallas Zoo?
According to the Dallas police, the preliminary investigation and the help of the population made it possible to identify Davion Irvin, 24, as a suspect linked to the theft of these primates, found Tuesday evening in an abandoned house about thirty kilometers from Dallas.
“Dallas Police received a report on Thursday that (Davion) Irvin was seen at the Dallas Aquarium near the animals on display,” law enforcement said in a statement.
The suspect was eventually apprehended further in town and charged with six counts of ‘animal cruelty’.
Police say the charges relate solely to the theft of the emperor tamarin monkeys, and that “the investigation into all cases at the zoo continues.”
Because the Dallas Zoo has been the object for several weeks of mysterious misdeeds.
The menagerie of this Texas oil town is just recovering from the death of its beloved vulture. The animal named ‘Pin’ was found last week with an ‘atypical injury’, leading authorities to believe his death was not from a natural cause.
On January 13, a rare clouded leopard escaped from the menagerie through an intentionally cut breach in its enclosure. The feline named Nova had been recovered after a vast mobilization, involving in particular drones with infrared vision of the police.
Later, zoo workers discovered a similar breach in the cage of langurs, a species of Asian monkey.