A group of 15 monkeys at Kyoto University’s primate research institute in Aichi Prefecture, which are the focus of a string of high-profile scientific studies, escaped from their forest home which is encased by a 17ft high electric fence.

The monkeys made their bid for freedom by using tree branches to fling themselves one by one over the high voltage electric fence located nearly three metres away.

However, despite the intelligence shown in their great escape, the primates appeared unsure as to what to do with their newfound freedom: the monkeys remained by the gates of the research centre and were lured back into captivity by scientists armed with peanuts.

The terror. The tragedy. Imagine being clever enough to plot escape from your hairless ape captors. Then to achieve freedom you discover you don’t know how to define “freedom.” So you lounge around the jail you called home only an hour before.

You sit there, lounging. Freedom as only your monkey-brain can describe it. Then the hairless apes manipulate your primal needs with the weakness they studied, and maybe encouraged, into your very animal soul.

via telegraph.co.uk