Escaped monkey ‘ate lots of peanuts’ while on run in Highlands of Scotland
A monkey that escaped from a wildlife park ate “quite a lot of peanuts” during its five days roaming the Scottish Highlands, its keepers have revealed.
The owners of the Highland Wildlife Park, near Kingussie, said Honshu the Japanese macaque was “doing really well” and did not appear to have lost any weight.
It was captured on Thursday morning in the village of Insh, where it was eating nuts from a bird feeder in a garden. It had also consumed a Yorkshire pudding that had been left out for birds and squirrels.
Last Sunday, the day it escaped, Honshu was spotted taking nuts from a bird feeder in the nearby village of Kincraig.
The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), which runs the park, said it would be slowly reintroduced to other “sub-adult males” in its group.
Honshu doing ‘really well’
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.”
Nicknamed Kingussie Kong, Honshu escaped on Sunday morning and was thought to have travelled at least 12.5 miles during its time on the run, with the furthest confirmed sighting four miles away.
For days, it evaded a search party that included a mountain rescue team and drones equipped with thermal imaging technology.
Yorkshire pudding was too tempting
But the seven-year-old came out of hiding to eat a Yorkshire pudding that Stephanie Banyan left out in her garden and then targeted her bird feeder.
When she looked out of her sunroom shortly after 10am on Thursday, she saw the Yorkshire pudding had disappeared and Honshu “staring straight in the window at me”.
She raised the alarm on a special “monkey hotline” that had been established, after which a search team surrounded the house and shot Honshu with a tranquiliser dart. Its keepers believe it had been making its way back to the wildlife park because it was missing the company of other monkeys.
Drone footage released on Friday, courtesy of BH Wildlife Consultancy, showed Honshu lying on the ground as a person with a net approached and placed it over the monkey.
