A flock of thief monkeys attacked and robbed researchers from an Indian laboratory, taking several tubes of contaminated blood.
According to Reuters, the monkey raid occurred on a campus in the city of Meerut. The animals attacked a college lab technician and stole several blood samples from patients suffering from COVID-19. Video footage later showed that one of the monkeys uncorked a test tube and tasted its contents. The Times of India portal writes about this.
"The monkeys took blood samples from four patients who are undergoing treatment with us," SK confirmed. Garg, a senior staff member of the college.
Monkey aggression is a common phenomenon in India. These animals are so tightly integrated into the social environment that whole flocks sometimes survive on grazing, begging from landfills or stealing food. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the influx of tourists has sharply decreased, people have stopped feeding the monkeys - which is why they have become much more aggressive and arrogant.
It is unclear if the contaminated blood will harm the animals themselves. Laboratory experiments have shown that some species of monkeys can become infected with the coronavirus, causing them to develop almost the same symptoms as humans. But the fact that the primate tasted the sample doesn’t mean anything - we just have to wait for news.
Vasily Makarov