A woman has revealed how she was the one to find the on-the-run Japanese macaque monkey nicknamed Kingussie Kong after he had been missing for five days.
The monkey, whose real name is Honshu, was caught earlier today after breaking out of a Scottish zoo – in a scene reminiscent of the popular 2005 film Madagascar.
Now a woman named only as Stephanie has come forward as the person who spotted the animal. She called the hotline set up for information about Honshu after finding him in her garden, leading to its capture.
Stephanie told how she put a leftover Yorkshire pudding out last night – before the cheeky monkey ate it this morning.
‘I came round to the sun room this morning with my coffee, looked through the doors and the monkey was just staring right through the window at me,’ she laughed.
She told 5 News how her reaction was one of ‘shock’ and ‘surprise’.
On-the-run Japanese macaque monkey nicknamed Kingussie Kong has been found
The first drone footage of an escaped Japanese snow monkey showing the animal strolling through woodland – just 300 yards from the park
A scene in the 2005 film Madagascar where escaped monkeys are surrounded and caught
bh_wildlife_consultancy shared this image on their Instagram story today
Stephanie revealed how she found the monkey in her garden this morning
Drone footage captured on Tuesday showed the monkey but teams were unable to capture it that day
Teams on the ground said they received a call that a local resident had seen the monkey raiding their bird feeder, before they were able to tranquilise the animal with a dart and safely monitor him as he found his way back to his wildlife park today.
Experts were able to follow the progress of the Japanese macaque for 45 minutes using a drone on Tuesday with help from BH Wildlife Consultancy and said he appeared to be making his way closer to Highland Wildlife Park.
However they were unable to use the device on Wednesday due to high winds, with a yellow weather warning in place in the area.
A drone was used again on Thursday morning and he was found about two miles from the zoo.
‘He is recovering from the dart but is in perfect health,’ This Morning’s resident vet Dr Scott Miller told.
Keith Gilchrist, living collections operations manager at Highland Wildlife Park said: ‘We can confirm we have successfully caught the macaque that escaped from the park on Sunday named Honshu.
‘I came round to the sun room this morning with my coffee, looked through the doors and the monkey was just staring right through the window at me’
‘After a call to our hotline just after 10am our keepers and drone team made their way to a member of the public’s garden where the monkey was eating from a birdfeeder and successfully used a tranquiliser dart to catch him.
‘The monkey is on the way back to the park with our keepers where he will be looked over by one of our vet team and reintroduced to sub-adult males within the group.
‘We want to thank everyone who has helped during the process and will continue to share any further updates.’
In the popular film Madagascar a group of cartoon animals escape from New York’s Central Park zoo in an attempt to find ‘the wild’.
Alex the Lion, his friend Melman the giraffe, and Gloria the hippopotamus manage to break free, followed by some monkeys.
Speaking of the real life escaped monkey Honshu, Alan Bannon, head of communications at the RZSS which runs the Highland Wildlife Park, said it was a relief to finally capture the monkey.
He said: ‘We got a phone call from a member of the public saying they had spotted the animal in their garden helping himself to a bird feeder.
‘We sent out our drone team and our keepers and they confirmed it was the macaque.’
Mr Bannon said the monkey had been brought safely back to the park where it would be checked by vets before being given a ‘good feed’.
Drone footage from BH Wildlife Consultancy of a Japanese macaque which escaped from the Highland Wildlife Park on Sunday
Drone footage captured on Tuesday showed him roaming about underneath trees and sitting in undergrowth to have a look about before loping off
Mr Gilchrist said earlier: ‘Our teams are back out again today along with BH Wildlife Consultancy using the drone to try and locate the monkey.
‘We’re continuing to ask locals to please bring any obvious potential food sources like bird feeders or food waste inside.
‘Although the macaque is not presumed dangerous to humans or pets, our advice is to not approach him but to contact our hotline on 07933 928 377 with any sightings.’
The macaque left the wildlife park near Kingussie on Sunday after finding a way out of his enclosure.
Drone footage captured on Tuesday showed him roaming about underneath trees and sitting in undergrowth to have a look about before loping off.
The macaque was around 300 metres (roughly 980ft) north of the entry to the park in the footage captured on Tuesday.
However the monkey was not in a position from which keepers could retrieve him that day.
Mountain rescue team member Jonny Porteous uses a drone to search for the escaped monkey
A map of potential sightings of the monkey between Sunday and Tuesday
The RZSS said the monkey was unlikely to have posed a threat to the public or pets, but had asked that people did not approach it.
Highland Council said that as a precaution, children at Alvie Primary School in Kincraig stayed inside during Monday’s morning break.
But the pupils were later able to play outside following an update from the Highland Wildlife Park team.
The Japanese macaque, also known as the snow monkey, is the most northerly living non-human primate, according to the Royal Zoological Society Scotland.
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