Some residents in St Louis, Missouri, spotted monkeys roaming their streets this week in a situation that feels like the movie Jumanji came to life.

A handful monkeys were spotted in north St Louis by residents on Friday.

“The Department of Health has confirmed that multiple monkeys are on the loose around the vicinity of O’Fallon Park in North City. Original reports suggested there were four animals, but we cannot confirm an actual number at this time, only that there is more than one,” Justen Hauser, environmental health bureau chief with the St Louis department of health, said in a statement to the Guardian.

“We are working to get an idea of where they may be hiding or seeking food. We are engaging with partner agencies that are properly trained and equipped to safely capture these animals. Once captured, the monkeys will be transported to a facility certified to care for exotic animals.”

Hauser told an NBC local news affiliate that “this is the first time we’ve had a situation dealing with monkeys at large in the city of St Louis.”

It remains unclear where the monkeys came from, but the St Louis zoo has identified the primates as vervet monkeys.

“The vervet is a small, black-faced monkey, common in East Africa,” according to the African Wildlife Foundation. “There are several subspecies of vervet monkeys, but, generally, the body is a greenish-olive or silvery-gray.”

The organization states that vervets are often viewed as pests when living in areas populated by humans because they steal food and raid crops, which leads to significant annual slaughter of the animals.

They are also sold for profit in the United States, according to report in Earth.org, which followed the saga of a vervet named Gizmo who was sold after being “torn from his mother, likely at a few weeks old”. Gizmo was raised as a pet in the US and increasingly confined to a cage as he became more aggressive. He would later slip from the enclosure and attack an adult. Gizmo’s owner, who was not identified in the story, realized the animal should not be kept in a cage and contacted the Born Free USA Primate Sanctuary. The monkey was then transported to a sanctuary in south Texas. In the aftermath of the transport, the owner traveled to Washington DC and advocated for the Captive Primate Safety Act, introduced in May 2025. That bill would prohibit the import, export or sale of “any prohibited wildlife species or prohibited primate species”.

Exotic animals, including primates, are not allowed in St Louis. Hauser cautioned that residents “should not approach these monkeys or try to capture them.”

“They are very intelligent and social, but may be unpredictable or aggressive under stress. If you spot them, please call 314-657-1500 so that we can try to triangulate their location,” he said.