Maki made it.
A 21-year-old lemur that went missing from the San Francisco Zoo earlier this week has been found safe and returned home — thanks to the attentive eyes of a 5-year-old boy.
On Wednesday, San Francisco police released a statement saying that Maki, a ring-tailed male lemur, had been removed from its habitat and was missing.
“Officers arrived on scene and discovered forced entry to the animal enclosure where the lemur was housed,” police said.
Investigators from the SFPD Burglary Unit assumed the lead in the investigation and reached out to the public, asking for help in locating the endangered animal.
On Thursday evening Maki was located in Daly City, just a few miles south of the zoo.
“Around 5pm, we got a report he was in the playground area of the Hope Lutheran Church. We contained him until staff from the zoo took him back home,” Daly City police tweeted.
According to San Francisco’s ABC7, Maki was spotted by a 5-year-old boy, James Trinh, who saw the missing animal outside his day care.
“The parents were calling and saying there’s a lemur out on the playground,” Sarah Riggs, a teacher at Hope Lutheran Day School, explained.
“My son saw Maki walking around the day care as he and my wife were leaving around 5 p.m.,” the boy’s dad, Sam Trihn, wrote on Twitter.
Officers from Daly City Police Department responded to the scene along with officers from Animal Care and Control and staff from the San Francisco Zoo, according to police.
The animal was identified as Maki and was determined to be in good health.
Maki is now back home at the San Francisco Zoo.
“Just a lot going on in the world right now, so it was good to have some good news tonight at least,” Trinh told ABC7.
“We do not think he escaped, we think he was taken from the zoo, but we have yet to get confirmation on either of those,” said Ed Pool, chair of the San Francisco Zoological board.
The incident remains an open and active investigation, policed said. No arrests have been made.
