I'm Inspired By These Amorous Australian Baboons
Latest

His body, his choice. On Tuesday, a frisky, 15-year-old male baboon escaped the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (RPA) in Sydney, Australia just moments before he was scheduled to have a vasectomy. In a widely circulated viral video, the baboon is seen making his great escape with two female baboons. As the BBC reports, all three were captured in a nearby building a few hours later, but I can’t help but admire his and his lady companions’ chutzpah. To decide to run wild hours before a procedure that would prevent pregnancy—it was if he was saying to the world in an Aussie accent, “No, mate! I am not done growing the baboon population a bit, and you mustn’t stop me!”
In the clip, the baboons are seen escaping from an unlocked gate near the parking lot of the hospital. Pedestrians are in shock, but also full of wonder. “Be free,” I said to myself while watching the video on repeat, tears staining my eyes. “Be free in a way I could only hope to be.”