Video shows woman inside zoo exhibit, where she tried to feed Cheetos to monkeys
Three Monkeys #ThreeMonkeys
After hopping a fence and traipsing through a moat, the woman was within inches of the spider monkeys at the El Paso Zoo.
Positioning herself against a rock inside the exhibit, she reached toward the animals and offered them a snack — Cheetos. She wore a smile as she crossed back through the moat and out of the enclosure.
The unidentified woman’s rendezvous inside the exhibit was captured in a video shared Saturday on Instagram. In the clip, other zoo visitors stared and someone giggled as the intruder approached the monkeys.
“This is (unfortunately) real,” read the caption of the post.
Zoo officials found out about the video soon after it was shared. “My phone lit up, along with my boss’s,” Zoo Director Joe Montisano said in an interview. He described the woman as “stupid” and “lucky,” and he said zoo officials want her to face charges.
El Paso Police Department Detective Diane Mack said that the agency is investigating, and that “no arrests have been made yet.”
The woman and the monkeys, Libby and Sunday, apparently were not harmed. But Montisano said it could have gone differently. He noted that primates have canine teeth and can be aggressive when their territory is invaded.
“It’s like someone coming to your house at 3 in the morning and breaking in — it’s not going to be a pleasant reaction you get,” Montisano said. “I mean, they’re animals.”
Zoo staff members do not know whether the monkeys ate any Cheetos. None were found inside the exhibit, and staff only knew about them because of the caption on Instagram.
But the snack could have harmed the monkey’s digestive systems, the zoo director said: “Your whole life, you eat fruits, nuts and vegetables, and all of the sudden here’s a Cheeto.”
As the video gained traction online, people who recognized the woman called the zoo to identify her. It also reached her employer, and by Monday she was out of a job.
The Lovett Law Firm, which has an office in El Paso, said in a statement Monday that the woman had been an employee but was fired after the video came to light. The company did not name her in the post.
“We absolutely do not condone this irresponsible and reckless behavior,” the law firm said. “We support the El Paso Zoo and our thoughts go out to the spider monkeys, Libby and Sunday, and hope that they will recover from this very traumatic experience.”
Montisano said zoo officials are considering raising the fence around the exhibit. Because the monkeys are afraid of water, the moat serves as an effective barrier, allowing for a low fence. Visitors have unobstructed views of the monkeys swinging through the habitat, but that could now change.
“Three hundred thousand people are going to have to pay for this one person’s stupid mistake,” Montisano said, referencing the zoo’s annual number of visitors.
Zoos across the country have occasionally dealt with humans getting too close to animals — in many cases, as cameras rolled.
In March 2019, a woman crossed a barrier to take a selfie with a jaguar at the Wildlife World Zoo, Aquarium & Safari Park near Phoenix. The animal slashed her arm, and she needed stitches.
Seven months later, another woman climbed over a fence at the Bronx Zoo and approached a lion. Video footage showed her waving to the animal and calling out, “Baby! I love you!”
And in March, bystander video captured a man carrying a toddler into an elephant exhibit at the San Diego Zoo. As the elephant charged, Jose Navarrete ran, dropping his child. No one was harmed, but the 25-year-old man was later arrested on suspicion of child endangerment.
“These are wild animals,” Montisano said. “I’ve been in this business 28 years, and people don’t really understand that these are wild animals.”
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