About two dozen monkeys broke out of a German zoo and spent the day lolling in the sun near a forest before being recaptured, according to authorities in Loeffingen, southwest of Stuttgart near the Swiss border.

The Barbary macaques, commonly known as Barbary apes, escaped from the zoo last week though it was not entirely clear how they got away. However, construction work at the zoo might have been a factor, police said.

The primates were spotted roaming the area in a pack, but zoo employees were unable to recapture them and eventually lost track of them. A few hours later they were spotted, recaptured, and returned to their cages without incident.

“The animals apparently took advantage of the nice weather and spent the afternoon on the edge of a forest near the zoo,” police said.

The Barbary macaque is native to the Atlas Mountains of North Africa and has a small but famous presence across the water in Europe in the British territory of Gibraltar.