Residents of Heidelberg, Mississippi, have been on edge for days after a truck carrying rhesus monkeys overturned on Interstate 59, releasing several animals into nearby neighborhoods. But for Jessica Bond Ferguson — a 35-year-old mother of five — the situation turned personal when one of the monkeys showed up near her home early Sunday morning.
Her 16-year-old son had just run into the house saying he saw something 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.”
Grabbing her phone and legally registered firearm, she stepped outside and saw the monkey about sixty feet away. With police and animal control not yet on scene, Ferguson said she made a quick decision to defend her family. “It just stood there at first, and when I fired again, it backed up and went down,” she said. “If it attacked somebody’s kid, and I could have stopped it — that would have been on me.”
According to the National Geographic, rhesus monkeys are intelligent primates that can become highly aggressive when stressed or separated from their group. Officials from the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office later confirmed that one monkey was located and secured Sunday morning, with assistance from the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks.The monkeys had escaped days earlier after a truck transporting twenty-one caged primates overturned north of Heidelberg. The animals originated from Tulane University’s National Biomedical Research Center in New Orleans, which supplies research institutions nationwide. Tulane stated that the monkeys had been recently screened and were free of pathogens.
Out of the original twenty-one, thirteen were recovered quickly, five perished, and three remained unaccounted for until Sunday’s incident at the Ferguson home. Local authorities emphasized that although the animals were not infectious, they were still considered unsafe to approach due to their unpredictable nature.
Video from the crash site showed splintered wooden crates labeled “Live Animals” scattered along the roadside as small figures darted through tall grass. Sheriff Randy Johnson said wildlife experts were working with Tulane representatives to recover any remaining animals humanely.For residents, the incident sparked conversation about wildlife safety and emergency preparedness in rural communities. “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 investigating what caused the truck to overturn. Tulane University clarified that it did not own the animals and was not responsible for their transport logistics.
