Residents of Heidelberg, Mississippi, have spent the past several days on edge after a truck carrying rhesus monkeys overturned on Interstate 59, releasing several of the animals into nearby neighborhoods. For 35-year-old mother of five, Jessica Bond Ferguson, the bizarre incident became personal when one of the escaped monkeys appeared near her home early Sunday morning.
Her 16-year-old son had just rushed inside, warning her that something was moving in the yard. “I didn’t wait,” Ferguson told the Associated Press. “I did what any other mother would do to protect her children.”
Armed with her phone and her legally registered firearm, Ferguson stepped outside and spotted the monkey roughly sixty feet away. With no police or animal control officers yet on scene, she decided to act. “It just stood there at first, and when I fired again, it backed up and went down,” she recalled. “If it had attacked someone’s kid, and I could have stopped it—that would’ve been on me.”
According to National Geographic, rhesus monkeys are highly intelligent but can become aggressive when frightened or separated from their troop. Officials with the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office later confirmed that one monkey was located and safely secured on Sunday morning, with help from the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks.
The animals had escaped several days earlier when a truck transporting twenty-one caged primates overturned north of Heidelberg. The monkeys were being transported from Tulane University’s National Biomedical Research Center in New Orleans, a facility that provides research animals to laboratories nationwide. Tulane later stated that the monkeys had recently undergone health screenings and were free of any pathogens.
Of the twenty-one monkeys, thirteen were quickly recovered, five were killed in the crash, and three remained missing until Sunday’s encounter near the Ferguson home. Local authorities emphasized that, although the animals were not infected, they should still be considered dangerous due to their unpredictable behavior.
Footage from the crash site showed splintered wooden crates marked “Live Animals” scattered along the highway shoulder, while small shapes could be seen darting through the tall grass. Sheriff Randy Johnson said wildlife specialists were working alongside Tulane representatives to locate and capture the remaining monkeys humanely.
For residents, the ordeal has sparked wider conversations about wildlife safety and emergency preparedness in small rural towns. “It’s scary,” Ferguson admitted. “People have kids playing in their yards, and you never expect something like this to happen here.”
The Mississippi Highway Patrol continues to investigate the cause of the crash. Tulane University has clarified that it did not own the animals and was not responsible for their transportation arrangements.
Key Developments in the Heidelberg Monkey Incident:
-
A truck transporting rhesus monkeys overturned near Heidelberg, Mississippi, releasing multiple animals.
-
Local mother Jessica Bond Ferguson took quick action to protect her family when one monkey appeared near her home.
-
Officials confirmed that the monkeys were disease-free but cautioned the public against approaching them.
-
Tulane University cooperated with local and state agencies to recover the remaining animals.
-
The event has raised new concerns about wildlife control, transport safety, and community response plans.
As life in Heidelberg begins to return to normal, many online commentators have praised Ferguson’s decisive actions as heroic, while others stressed the importance of allowing trained professionals to handle wild animal encounters. Regardless of perspective, the incident stands as a vivid example of a mother’s instinct to protect her family — and a reminder that even in the quietest of towns, unexpected dangers can appear in an instant.