Baboon in for snip gives handler the slip at Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital

Three baboons that escaped while being transported to a medical research facility in Sydney have been captured | WATCH

Three baboons that managed to escape while being transported to a medical research facility at a major Sydney hospital — where one was to undergo a vasectomy — have been recaptured.

The animals were being transferred from a NSW colony to the research facility in the grounds of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, in Sydney’s inner west, when they managed to get loose late on Tuesday afternoon.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the baboons — an older male and two younger ­females — escaped when the door of a truck they were being transported in failed.

Mr Hazzard confirmed the male was destined for a vasectomy, with his female companions accompanying him to “keep him comfortable”.

A woman films three baboons on the loose.

“They are two of his wives ­effectively … he came with his two wives to keep him happy,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “Tomorrow (Wednesday) after the operation, he and the two wives will return to the colony where he can stay forever with them, but he will no longer be having babies.”

Police were called to the RPA just before 5.30pm and managed to corral the baboons in a carpark.

“They’re behaving very ­respectfully and responsibly for baboons,” Mr Hazzard said.

“They’re baboons as part of the colony that’s been around for about 20 years and they are involved in research; I understand they’re extremely well cared for.

“They are quite placid and ­behaving themselves far better than one would expect.”

The baboons managed to avoid capture for two hours ­before animal handlers returned them to the facility.

The breakout sparked a flurry of calls to talkback radio station 2GB from passers-by who had seen them on the loose. “Mate, I’m deadset serious, I’m at RPA, I’m six floors up and I was just having a gaze out at the carpark … and there were three baboons in the carpark,” one caller told afternoon presenter Ben Fordham.

“I’m deadset serious. They even had shiny red bottoms.”

Another said her daughter and her colleagues had been chasing the animals: “My daughter is an occupational therapist at RPA and she said ‘Yes, Mum, I’ve just helped wrangle them’.”