Three chimpanzees were shot and killed by the director of Zoo Nebraska on Saturday after they escaped from their cage at the small zoo near Royal in northeast Nebraska. A fourth chimp returned to its cage shortly after escaping. 

Zoo Director Ken Schlueter Jr. said that when workers left the chimps’ cage after cleaning it, one of the padlocks was not clicked shut. Visitors and employees saw the chimps lift the padlock and break out of their cage.

Visitors were immediately moved into the office area and barricaded in for safety, Schlueter said.

“They were our first priority,” he said.

Deb Collins, spokeswoman for the Nebraska State Patrol, said no people were hurt in the incident, which began at about noon and lasted about 45 minutes.

The Nebraska State Patrol and the Antelope County Sheriff’s Department helped zoo employees in their attempt to capture the animals.

Collins said the four animals escaped from the zoo and ran into Royal, a community of about 75 people in Antelope County. The chimps tried to get into a couple of businesses in town, Collins said, before returning to the zoo.

Schlueter said later that only one of the chimps — he’s not sure which one — actually left the zoo and walked about a block and a half into town. The animal opened the door of a convenience store, but an Antelope County sheriff’s deputy at the scene shut the door right away, and the chimp returned to the zoo “almost immediately.”

Back at the zoo, one of the chimpanzees — Ripley — went back into his cage.

“He went back to the place where he felt the most safe, I’m assuming,” Schlueter said.

But zoo workers and law enforcement officials couldn’t get the other three male chimps, who were at the opposite end of the zoo, to join him.

Schlueter said he tried to pacify the chimps with a zoo tranquilizer gun, hitting two of them, but even after five minutes, the tranquilizers had not taken effect on the animals.

“That’s when the decision was made,” said Schlueter, who ended up shooting the three loose chimps with a deputy’s service revolver.

Schlueter said he put the animals down “solely to protect the people that were in the office,” he said. Apparently, the chimps had tried to get into the building where the visitors were barricaded, he said.

“When it became apparent there’d be danger here, they had to be destroyed,” Schlueter said.

The animals are “very dangerous when loose,” and they run fast, Schlueter said.

Two of the escaped chimps, Rueben and Tyler, weighed more than 200 pounds, and the third, Jimmy Joe, weighed 300 pounds or more, Schlueter said.

Later, people from zoos in Kansas City and St. Louis told Schlueter it was rare for no one to be injured when chimpanzees escape captivity.

“We’re very fortunate,” he said.

Sunday morning the chimps that were killed were taken to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, where their bodies could be refrigerated overnight, Schlueter said. Later, they were flown to a zoo in St. Louis, where autopsies will be performed to determine why the tranquilizers didn’t work on them.

People at the zoo were attached to the chimpanzees, which were like pets or children — almost humanlike, Schlueter said.

“It’s going to be a real tough time for us for a little bit,” he said.

Reuben was the facility’s first animal when it opened 18 years ago as the Midwest Primate Research Facility.

Jimmie Joe was brought to Royal in 2001 to give Reuben companionship. A $20,000 donation from Johnny Carson allowed the zoo to acquire Tyler and Ripley in 2003 from a retiring animal trainer in California who had used the animals in movies. Carson had donated $55,000 to the zoo several years earlier.

Reach Hilary Kindschuh at 473-7237 or hkindschuh@journalstar.com.