2 Oct 2015

Monkey see, monkey chew?

10:45 am on 2 October 2015

Baboons have briefly forced a radio station off air in Zimbabwe after apparently eating the station's transmission cables.

A baboon snacks on a banana - no radio cables available. (File photograph.)

A baboon snacks on a banana - no radio cables available. (File photograph.) Photo: AFP

YA FM radio station head Munyaradzi Hwengwere said he first thought the show had gone off air due to a power cut, the Chronicle newspaper reports.

However, it turned out that baboons had chewed through the station's fibre optic cables in a mountainous area near the central town of Zvishavane.

YA FM launched last weekend.

"I'm told there were more than five of them that ate into the cable," Mr Hwengwere said, adding that the breakfast show remained off air for an hour.

"When we got to the tower, we saw the baboons scurrying away," he added.

The station was back on air after an hour, a couple of thousand dollars poorer from the loss of advertising revenue during the disruption.

- BBC/AAP