Monkey who escaped from Australian Lennon Bros circus returned to owners

Livvie was believed to have roamed the park where the circus was based before she returned home

A macaque monkey, similar to Livvie, plays in China. (Lintao Zhang/Getty)

A monkey which jumped off the back of a pony during a training session and ran away from a circus in Australia has been reunited with its owners.

The 23-year-old rhesus macaque escaped from the Lennon Bros Circus stationed at Cahill Park in Arncliffe, Sydney, on Sunday, by running out of a gate that a trainer had left ajar.

“Livvie obviously got excited, saw the door was ajar, jumped off the pony's back and off she went,” St George Police Inspector Rob Stark told AAP.

At the time, police officers believed Livvie was most likely swinging in the trees lining the park, and hoped she would return to the circus when she became hungry.

Owner Jan Lennon confirmed that Livvie had escaped when a trainer was returning a fellow pony-riding monkey named Bubbles to his cage.

“He turned his back and she took off through the door,” she said.

“A bit of a panic set in for a while [but] she couldn't have been too far away.”

Livvie’s moment of freedom came after three elephants escaped from a circus in St Louis, in the US state of Missouri in March of this year.

The creatures damaged several vehicles in a nearby car park but caused no injuries before they were recaptured by staff.