A video from China is all the proof you need that the hilarious antics of monkeys at the zoo are really just a distracting ruse as they spend their days figuring out the best way to escape.
On August 20, visitors to the Zhengzhou Zoo, located in Central China’s Henan Province, were amused by a Colombian white-faced capuchin monkey who had picked up a rock with a sharp edge and was using it to bang away on one of the glass walls of its enclosure, the People’s Daily reports. To the visitors’ surprise—and probably the monkey’s, given how quickly it retreated—it only took a couple of blows for the glass wall to shatter into thousands of pieces. The animal’s apparent escape attempt was still fruitless, however, as the pane of glass remained intact as a result of its reinforcement.
A zoo staffer told Chinese media that this particular capuchin monkey has stood out by using tools to crack open walnut treats, instead of just struggling to bite open the tough shells. After the incident, the rocks in the enclosure were reportedly removed.
Without those stone tools, future escape might be impossible—or is that what the monkeys want us to think?