A monkey that escaped from a wildlife park in the Highlands has been found in a nearby garden, lured by peanuts in a birdfeeder, after an intensive five-day search.
The Japanese macaque, called Honshu, was spotted by a member of the public sitting on her patio on Thursday morning.
Stephanie Bunyan said she believed Honshu may have eaten the leftover yorkshire pudding she put out by her bird feeders on Wednesday evening.
She alerted the search team at Highland Wildlife park, drone specialists and animal keepers were swiftly dispatched, and the monkey was successfully tranquillised with a dart as he hopped around Bunyan’s roof.
Keith Gilchrist, the living collections operations manager at Highland Wildlife park, who was coordinating the search, described his “huge relief” that the hunt was over and the macaque appeared to have survived his excursion unscathed.
Honshu has been checked by the park vet and will require time to recover from the dart before he is gradually reintroduced to his troop.
“We’re so happy that he’s back and safe,” Gilchrist said. “In the end the bird feeders saved the day. In the open country it’s so difficult to get a dart into him but we knew if he was in the right spot at the right time we’d be able to get him,” he said.
He added that the park would “absolutely” be reviewing the security fences around the macaque enclosure.
The missing macaque has become a global celebrity since disappearing on Sunday, with coverage of his solo adventure appearing around the world.
Gilchrist added that he hoped the interest Honshu had garnered would draw more attention to the conservation work carried out by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, which runs the park.
Honshu was eventually found 1.4 miles from the park, having been sighted 300 metres from the entrance on Tuesday evening, raising hopes that he might return to his enclosure of his own accord.
“From the movements we’ve had reported, he had that homing instinct,” said Stuart Owen, who has worked as keeper with the macaques for a year.
One theory is that the monkey jumped over the fence seeking respite from the tensions of breeding season – there are two dominant males in the park’s macaque group and Honshu is younger and less confident.
“Even though they’re a social animal, sometimes when you’ve had a spat with other members of your troop you might want to go off and collect yourself,” said Owen.
“Considering that he was in unfamiliar territory, from the video clips we’ve seen his behaviour was actually quite calm and collected, there was no panic behaviour.”
“They’re intelligent creatures, they know how to forage and have a sense for what they can and can’t eat.”
