Monkey business as chimp escapes zoo, only to be captured

A ROGUE chimpanzee has shown why his favourite television show is Prison Break after escaping from a zoo in northern Japan.

WITH the possibility of Donald Trump being elected President becoming very real, animals are starting to realise humans might not be that smart after all.

In the last week alone, two animals have made humans look like chumps after escaping from two different zoo enclosures.

First, Inky the octopus channelled his inner-El Chapo and fled from New Zealand’s National Aquarium back into the Pacific Ocean.

Following the lead of the anarchist cephalopod, Chacha the chimpanzee also left his enclosure and headed for the hills.

Well, if hills were a suburban power pole.

The 24-year-old male chimp escaped from the Yagiyama Zoological Park in Sendai, northern Japan.

With zoo keepers in hot pursuit, Chacha took to the streets for nearly two hours after escaping.

When keepers closed in on the chimpanzee, he decided to seek refuge at the top of a power pole.

Tranquilliser ... Chacha, the male chimp, falls off an electric pole, after being hit by a sedative arrow in Sendai, northern Japan. Picture: AP

With a TV crew capturing the whole event live on national television, Chacha perched atop the pole, agitated and screaming at zoo workers below.

After being shot with a tranquilliser, the chimp lost his footing and seemed destined for certain doom.

But, with one last burst of energy, he grabbed onto the powerline with one hand and dangled above the street below.

Seconds later, he lost his grip and plummeted head first toward the ground, only to be captured by rescuers waiting with a plastic sheet.

Zoo staffer Toshikazu Abe said Chacha was wrapped in a blanket before being taken back to the zoo.

“Chacha is coming to from the tranquilliser,” he said.

“Despite the fall, he was unhurt and there is no threat to his life.

“We are investigating why he escaped.”