Possible Monkey Sighting Nearly 3 Days After Truck Crash Releases Several into Wild

Nearly 3 days after a truck crashed in Mississippi and unleashed a group of lab monkeys into the wild, cops were tipped off on a possible sighting -- but hold your bananas, 'cause no monkeys have been found!

Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson tells TMZ ... an individual called in Thursday night reporting a monkey sighting around the apartments on Country Road 828 near Heidelberg in Jasper County.

But, when the search team arrived, there was no monkey swinging around.

There might be some monkey business going around, 'cause when the person heading the search called the male tipster back, a woman answered the phone and was confused about what they were calling about.

Prank call or not, there are still 3 rhesus macaques exploring the great outdoors. The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks (MDWFP) warned these type of monkeys are known to be aggressive, and advised the public to avoid any contact.

BTW, these are the same monkeys who were reported to be carrying COVID, herpes, and hepatitis C -- but that was all a big misunderstanding.

Tulane University -- where the monkeys were being transported from -- told TMZ the animals were not diseased, and had even "received recent checkups confirming that they were pathogen-free."

There were 21 monkeys involved in the crash. 5 were shot and killed after being mislabeled as infectious, while 13 were accounted for when authorities arrived on the scene.

We're told Tulane -- who didn't own the monkeys or transport them -- is working with MDWFP and local authorities to help track down the MIA primates.