Escaped monkey ate Yorkshire pudding in woman's garden before returning to Highlands wildlife park
A woman who helped to catch a missing Japanese macaque monkey which escaped a Scottish wildlife park said it was eating a Yorkshire pudding when she spotted it.
Stephanie Banyan spotted the animal, nicknamed Kingussie Kong, eating leftovers in her garden.
She told Channel 5 news the monkey ate the food then sat at her back door as she called the hotline set up after its escape five days ago.
She added: "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."
The search was launched on Sunday after the monkey found a way out of its enclosure at Highland Wildlife Park near Kingussie.
Staff who arrived on the scene were able to shoot it with a tranquiliser dart while it was eating from a bird feeder in the garden on Thursday morning.
He has been taken back to the park and will be checked over by a vet before being reintroduced to his group.
Keith Gilchrist, the park’s living collections operations manager, said: “We can confirm we have successfully caught the macaque that escaped from the park on Sunday, named Honshu.
“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 bird feeder and successfully used a tranquilliser 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.”
A drone was used in the search and experts were able to follow the monkey for 45 minutes on Tuesday using the device, though were not able to retrieve him that day.
The Japanese macaque, also known as the snow monkey, is the most northerly living non-human primate, according to Park operators the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland.
