Watch: Kingussie Kong’s Highland escape is ended by a Yorkshire pud – and missing his friends
He escaped heat-seeking drones and a search party that included mountain rescuers on a five-day odyssey around the Scottish Highlands.
But for Honshu the monkey, dubbed Kingussie Kong, it was the temptation of a Yorkshire pudding – as well as seeking a reunion with his old friends – that saw his daring bid for freedom come to an end.
The seven-year-old Japanese macaque came out of hiding to snaffle the savoury treat, which had been left out by Stephanie Banyan in her garden the previous night, in the village of Insh, Inverness-shire.
Ms Banyan had left the pud out on Wednesday night for birds and squirrels. But when she looked out of her sunroom doors shortly after 10am the following day, she was confronted by Honshu, a fugitive since he fled Highland Wildlife Park in Kingussie on Sunday.
The Yorkshire pudding had disappeared.
Honshu’s keepers believe he had slowly been making his way back home to the wildlife park over recent days as experts said he would be missing the company of other monkeys.
On Tuesday, footage from a drone deployed in the search for Honshu picked him up just 300 metres from the park.
After spotting the fugitive on Thursday morning, Ms Banyan raised the alarm on a “monkey hotline”, set up for locals to report sightings. A drone was launched and keepers arrived within 10 minutes.
Members of the search team surrounded Ms Banyan’s home, with tranquiliser dart rifles trained on the property as Honshu got on the roof and navigated the gutters. As they closed in, the monkey showed his gratitude by defecating in her well-manicured garden.
After being shot with the dart, he slumped face down and was collected in a large net.
It is estimated that Honshu travelled at least 12.5 miles during his escape, with the furthest confirmed sighting more than four miles from his wildlife park home.
Ben Harrower, the owner of BH Wildlife Consultancy, who joined the hunt, said at first he had only been able to pick up a pheasant and deer with his drone, before thermal imaging showed Honshu on the roof.
“He was very well hidden under an alcove,” he said. “After 20 minutes of monitoring, a team from the Highland Wildlife Park were able to get into position and successfully tranquilise the monkey and bring him to safety.”
Ms Banyan told Channel 5 news: “I came down into the sunroom this morning with my coffee, looked out of the doors, and the monkey was just staring straight in the window at me.
“There was a bit of shock, a bit of surprise, then I thought I’d better phone the hotline. We get pheasants in the garden, all sorts of wildlife, but never a macaque.”
There had been several sightings of Honshu since Sunday. He was seen that morning snacking on bird feeders in Kincraig, more than two miles north of the wildlife park.
An initial search effort focused on vast areas of woodland to the north of the town.
Keepers believe he fled the enclosure after getting into a fight, but began his return home after finding there were no other macaque troops roaming Scotland for him to join.
He was then filmed on Tuesday but although he was followed from the sky for around 45 minutes, he evaded his keepers once again.
Search efforts were curtailed by high winds on Wednesday, before Honshu was finally captured on Thursday around a mile south of the wildlife park. He was checked by vets before being reunited with the 36 other members of his troop.
Keith Gilchrist, the living collections operations manager at Highland Wildlife Park, said he was “so relieved” to have successfully captured the runaway.
While not usually a danger to humans, macaques have been known to attack when threatened and children at a local primary school had their playtime temporarily curtailed when Honshu was on the loose.
“It’s been a long five days,” Mr Gilchrist said. “But the keeper team have been fantastic and the local community have been great with phoning in tips and sightings.
“I’m just glad it all came together in the end and we’ve been able to bring him back home.”
The macaque, also known as a snow monkey, is about the size of a medium-sized dog. The fight that caused Honshu to flee is believed to have been caused by tensions due to the monkeys’ mating season.
