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Baboon blacks out Zambian town

July 17, 2017

An overly inquisitive baboon has triggered a power cut in a Zambian town near Victoria Falls. The animal suffered an electric shock, but survived the incident that experts say would have killed a human.

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Baboon
Image: Fotolia/Fotowerner

"Curiosity killed the cat," but a baboon who tampered with equipment at a power station in the Zambian town of Livingstone on Sunday, knocking out power to tens of thousands of people, was luckier than the unfortunate proverbial feline and has lived to tell the tale, officials say.

Zesco Ltd, the company that owns the power station, said on Monday that the primate had fiddled with a high voltage transformer and received a shock, but had survived and was now in the care of wildlife officials.

It said the blackout had lasted five hours, with some 40,000 customers left without electricity.

Read: 'Selfie monkey' on the brink in Indonesia

Monkey mischief

The power utility in Livingstone is close to a national park, but animals rarely wander into the plant.

The town is a hub for tourists visiting nearby Victoria Falls on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe.

A monkey in Kenya caused a similar incident last year, although that blackout was nationwide.

tj/rt (Reuters, AP)