A chimpanzee escaped from a zoo in northern Japan, climbed a tall electricity pole and then plunged from a wire into a blanket held by dozens of workers after being hit by a tranquilizing arrow.
Chacha, a male chimpanzee, survived the fall with bruises and minor cuts, a zoo official said Friday.
The chimpanzee was freed for nearly two hours on Thursday after it disappeared from the Yagiyama Zoological Park in Sendai, the city that hosted finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations in May.
Television footage shows Chacha sitting on a pole, agitated and screaming at zoo staff below. A cherry-picker worker shot the chimpanzee in the back with an arrow, sending it scurrying along power lines.
Chacha pulled out the arrow, but was dangling from the power line, seemingly losing his grip as the sedative took effect, and suddenly dropped his head into the blanket.
At the age of 24, or middle age for humans, the chimpanzee woke up from sedation and would slow down for a few days, said zoo official Takashi Ito.
The zoo was closed on Friday as officials investigated how it escaped. Zoo officials discovered a hole in the fence through which the chimpanzee apparently broke through.
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