Scottish monkey escape – live: Woman’s leftover Yorkshire pudding lures on-the-run Kinguissie Kong to capture
The leftover roast dinner favourite attracted the Japanese macaque which had escaped from its enclosure at Highland Wildlife Park near Kingussie, Inverness
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A woman inadvertently helped capture a missing Japanese macaque, nicknamed Kingussie Kong, by leaving leftover Yorkshire pudding in her garden.
Shocked Stephanie Banyan came downstairs in her home on Thursday morning to find the monkey staring through the window at her.
She later revealed that it was the roast dinner favourite which she left outside that had tempted to primate which escaped from Highland Wildlife Park near Inverness on Sunday.
“We get the pheasants in the garden, we’ve had all sorts of wildlife in the garden but never a macaque,” she told Channel 5 news.
The monkey led the authorities on a merry dance for nearly a week – but is now finally back at the wildlife park.
Staff at the park, run by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), had urged the public not to approach the primate and said zookeepers were searching for the animal.
Monkey’s real name revealed as Honshu
The missing monkey’s real name has been revealed as Honshu, after days of being dubbed “Kingussie Kong” because of the area it fled to.
Keith Gilchrist, living collections operations manager at Highland Wildlife Park, said zookeepers were able to tranquilise and catch the animal while it was eating from a birdfeeder.
“We can confirm we have successfully caught the macaque that escaped from the park on Sunday, named Honshu,” Mr Gilchrist said.
“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.”
‘I was shocked'
Stephanie Banyan told Channel 5 News how she found the monkey staring at her when coming down for breakfast on Thursday morning.
“I thought I better call the hotline,” she said after looking at the missing macaque.
She later revealed it was a leftover Yorkshire pudding which tempted the primate top her back door.
Finding escaped monkey in our garden ‘a story to tell the grandchildren'
A woman who found the escaped macaque sitting in her garden this morning has said it will be “a story to tell the grandchildren”.
“I came down this morning, sat in the sunroom with my cup of coffee, just glanced to the side and the monkey was just looking straight in the window at me,” said Stephanie Banyan.
“I was shocked and I just ran down to Howard and said ‘the monkey’s in our garden’. He came down here and jumped up on the wall here and sat here for a little while,” Ms Banyan told Channel 5 News.
“It’ll be a story to tell the grandchildren,” she added.
Macaque shown back at wildlife park in new footage
Here is some footage of the newly recaptured macaque rehoused at the Highland Wildlife Park, following its days-long escapade through the Strathspey countryside.
Last moments of monkey’s escape captured in drone footage
BH Wildlife Consultancy – which aided with the drone search for the escaped macaque – has published a clip from the moment the monkey was captured.
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