Monkey settling back into life at wildlife park after five-day escape
Honshu got out of his enclosure at Highland Wildlife Park on Sunday and was recaptured on Thursday.
A monkey which spent five days roaming the Highlands after escaping from a wildlife park is “doing really well” after being captured, keepers have said.
Honshu the Japanese macaque does not appear to have lost any weight and seems to have eaten “quite a lot of peanuts” during his time in the wild, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) said.
A search was launched on Sunday after the monkey found a way out of his enclosure at Highland Wildlife Park near Kingussie.
He was caught by keepers on Thursday after a member of the public spotted him snacking at a bird feeder in a garden in the local area.
The monkey was returned to the park and checked over by a vet and will now be gradually reintroduced to his group.
David Field, chief executive of RZSS, said: “Honshu has been carefully monitored by our vets and keepers and is doing really well.
“He doesn’t seem to have lost any weight and has apparently consumed quite a lot of peanuts during the past five days.
“He will now slowly be reintroduced to other sub-adult males within the group.
“We want to say a huge thank-you to the local community for their patience and cooperation throughout the past week, as well as our amazing staff at the park for their professionalism, patience and diligence.”
After Honshu was spotted in the garden just under a mile-and-a-half from the park on Thursday morning, keepers used a tranquilliser dart to catch him.
Drone footage released on Friday, courtesy of BH Wildlife Consultancy, showed Honshu lying on the ground as a person with a net on a stick approached and placed it over the monkey.
It is thought the monkey, nicknamed Kingussie Kong by locals, may have been tempted by Yorkshire pudding which had been left on the bird table overnight and was all gone in the morning, according to reports.
A drone was used in the search earlier in the week 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 furthest known sighting of him was four miles from the park.
The Japanese macaque, also known as the snow monkey, is the most northerly living non-human primate, according to park operators the RZSS.
