Authorities have not been able to capture a group of 43 young female monkeys that escaped from a research facility in Yemassee, South Carolina, this week.

The rhesus macaques are in a wooded area near the Alpha Genesis non-human primate biomedical research facility and have not been recaptured, despite company officials putting out traps baited with food to entice them to return. The monkeys have been cooing to those that remained behind, the Yemassee Police Department said in an update on Facebook Friday.

They are taking the food meant to bait them and getting away while watching the humans who are in turn observing the monkeys.

“They’re jumping down and taking the food and then jumping back up on the fence and the tree line. They’re watching us the same way we’re watching them. We’ve got them very close,” Alpha Genesis CEO Greg Westergaard told CBS News.

The monkeys have never been used for testing and are too young to carry and spread diseases to other monkeys and people.

The group of 43, the largest number to ever escape the Yemassee facility, busted loose after a caretaker failed to properly secure the door to their enclosure.

“It’s really like follow-the-leader. You see one go and the others go. It was a group of 50 and seven stayed behind and 43 bolted out the door,” Mr. Westergaard told CBS News.