Two pebbly droppings deposited on her patio are all that Stephanie Bunyan has to remind her of Thursday morning’s celebrity guest. Honshu the missing macaque was finally captured in Bunyan’s garden after five days and four nights on the run and after drone search technology was rendered useless by blustery weather. In the end, it was the yorkshire pudding that got him.
Bunyan likes to drink her morning coffee looking out on to her peaceful terraced garden, which is decorated with tinkling wind chimes and boasts an array of bird feeders.
There were peanuts in the feeders but on Wednesday night she put out some leftover yorkshire pudding. In the morning it was gone. And just after 10am “there he was at the top of the steps, looking in the window”.
The desire to capture her visitor on camera was powerful but she knew she had to get hold of Highland wildlife park straight away. Within 10 minutes of her call to its dedicated monkey hotline, the search drone operators had arrived, and minutes later the park keepers.
By then the macaque was hopping back and forth off the low roof of her sun room and playing in the gutters. It took some time for the rangers to line up their desired tranquilliser dart shot – when one attempt failed, the macaque “bit it and threw it away”, Bunyan said.
But the next shot was true and the doped monkey was whisked away for examination by the park’s vet.
Honshu was captured in the hamlet of Insh, less than 2km from where he was first spotted exploring the back gardens of Kincraig, the village nearest the park. During that time, the lone monkey covered a considerable amount of ground, roaming four miles to the north of the park and gradually heading back in a homebound direction.
With the monkey often hiding in high vegetation and roaming through thickly wooded areas, thermal drone technology was essential to the search.
One was lent to the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) by the Cairngorm mountain rescue team, who used it as a training exercise, and another search was coordinated by Ben Harrower, who runs a consultancy that specialises in monitoring and tracking wildlife populations.
“In that mixed woodland, the thermal drone can see through that no problem, and we were able to track him several times,” Harrower said.
“When the call came in from the resident, we deployed the drone to track him from there, and then the RZSS keepers came in and the operation worked perfectly. We watched with the drone from afar and he was hiding in the infrastructure of the house, sticking his head out, eating some nuts and running back. Yesterday was a write-off because of the weather but I’m glad we’ve seen it through the end.”
Carl Nagle was one of the first local residents to enjoy a visit from Honshu, getting awakened by his daughter on Sunday morning with the unexpected alert: “Dad, there’s a monkey in the street!”
He found Honshu investigating his back garden bird feeders, one of which remains bent out of shape from the monkey’s efforts to extract some nuts. By the time rangers from Highland Wildlife park arrived with a couple of nets, the monkey had disappeared over Nagle’s fence and the hunt ensued.
Here Nagle’s involvement with the monkey ceased and his involvement with the ensuing media circus began. “Five days later I’ve spoken to just about every media outlet there is,” he said cheerfully.
“I’ve been thinking why the world needed a story about an escaped monkey in the Highlands,” Nagle added. “I’ve watched a lot more news bulletins in the last week and most of the news is really bleak viewing.”
“It’s not divisive,” said his partner, Tina. “Everyone can rally round a missing monkey.”
Local traders have not missed the opportunity to capitalise on the simian hoopla: a local gardening supplies company has upgraded its advertising to include a macaque pushing a lawnmower, while Aviemore Hot Tub Services had a mock-up of a monkey enjoying the warm bubbles and “living his best life”.
Nagle said a friend who works at the park had called him on Thursday morning to let him know that the escaped monkey had finally been found. “Three minutes later the New York Times rang: ‘What’s your reaction?’”
