WATCH: Troublemaking chimps make great escape at zoo

Some troublemaking chimpanzees at the Kansas City Zoo were up to no good Thursday. The "Today" show has more on their funny business.

'One of the chimps broke off a six-foot tree limb inside his enclosure and used it as a ladder to scale the wall. The ringleader then convinced six other chimps to join him, but only two came along for the great escape.'

Thankfully, those chimps didn't make it to any public areas, but WDAF tells us the atmosphere was tense as zoo officials scrambled to put the mischief-makers back in their exhibit.

'You don't know what a chimpanzee is goingto do, you don't know what any wild animal is going to do, especially with small children.'

'Zoo workers locked up all the visitors inside area buildings here at the zoo campus for about an hour as they herded up those loose chimps.'

Zookeepers found just the thing to lure the primates back to their exhibit: chocolate!

The zoo's director says malted milk balls made the perfect bait.

KCTV reports this is not the first time the zoo's animals have made a run for it. Two male gorillas escaped in February 2012 after the door to their exhibit was left open. Fortunately, the gorillas only made it to a nonpublic area. The year before that, a monkey escaped after someone forgot to secure the padlock on its cage.

The chimps will not be in their public enclosure Friday as zookeepers look for any other branches the clever primates could use to stir up trouble.