Officials at Moody Gardens in Galveston have quarantined a pair of small monkeys after one of them bit a woman’s hand over the weekend at the Rainforest Pyramid.

Galveston police said the woman, who is from Harris County, was inside the pyramid’s free-roaming enclosure Sunday when she grabbed one of two male Cotton-top tamarins and the animal bit her.

“She reached for the monkey, it bit her and they both (monkeys) screamed simultaneously,” said Galveston police Lt. Joel Caldwell. “According to witnesses, the second monkey came to its defense and may have scratched her.”

The woman sustained a small cut to her hand and was treated at an urgent care clinic, police said.

The monkeys never left the enclosed pyramid, and both animals have been placed in a 30-day quarantine as a precaution for rabies, said Moody Gardens spokeswoman Jerri Hamachek. If infected, the animals would not survive the quarantine, she said.

The monkeys were not vaccinated for rabies, she said, because such vaccines are approved only for dogs, cats and ferrets.

Signs are posted throughout the Rainforest Pyramid with guidelines for visitors.

“Everybody looks at those little guys and they say how cute they are,” Caldwell said. “Hey those are wild creatures. There are signs up that say don’t harass, touch or feed them.”

The incident was the first reported primate bite since Moody Gardens introduced monkeys over six years ago, Hamachek said. The pyramid also is home to three Saki monkeys, which are native to South America.

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