The Great Ape Escape

The last light was turned off in the monkey house, all was quiet. There were some very naughty monkeys in this zoo, but the keepers didn't know it yet.

It was one night when the youngest monkey, Pongo, wanted an adventure. He told his friends and they started a plan for all the monkeys to escape for the night and have some fun. They told the Lemurs, Orang-utans, Chimps, the Spider Monkeys and the Gibbons, they however didn't tell the Howling Gibbon because he couldn't keep quiet. They also told their friend Santos the Sloth, who was rather slow.

When it was dark, Pongo called to his friends to stand by their cage doors and wait for Mini, the tiniest spider monkey to arrive with the keys that she had taken from the trainee keeper,Bob, who was rather dozy. Soon everyone was out of their enclosures and looking at Pongo to see what to do next. “Follow me “ he whispered and the mob of apes set off like SAS soldiers on a mission. Soon they had passed the sleeping red panda and the inquisitive meerkats but it was the mighty Sabre, the tiger, ahead. They ducked down creeping silently but one sleepy eye began to open an ear twitched and the monkeys fled in horror! Luckily their destination was just around the corner, the Adventure playground, and monkey paradise. For the next two hours they played like never before chasing each other round and Pongo especially liked the twirly slide. After a while he felt quite dizzy. Some of the gibbons found their way in to the food hall and stole all the fruit but soon the first rays of morning sun began to appear behind the giraffe’s necks and it was time to get back.

Around the corner trundled the striped road train driven by Gus, the orangutang. He rang the little bell and they all jumped aboard, some sleepy and ready for bed. The train passed the smelly maned wolves who gave them a puzzled look and then went back to their dreams. Next came the giraffe house where they greeted the new calf, Trio with excited waves. Gus, was careful to avoid Sabre, who was now very much awake and eager for his breakfast!

Each group was dropped off and entered an enclosure being careful to shut the door behind them. Soon all was quiet again.

Bob set off in his little jeep with buckets of fruit and vegetables rattling on the back seat. He put his hand in to his pocket searching for the keys but all that was there was his mobile phone. Now where had he put those keys? He finally arrived at the spider monkey enclosure only to find shaggy orange orangoutangs snoring loudly! He raced frantically to the chimpanzee house… ahh lemurs! It was the same at every ape enclosure. He sat in his jeep, his head in his hands. Suddenly, looking up he saw Mini holding a bunch of keys!