After a taste of freedom in the Scottish Highlands, Runaway Monkey is captured

Since the escape, the residents of Kingussie have been tracking the whereabouts of a fugitive in the Scottish highlands.

There he was, breaking into a backyard to pick up some food as a couple filmed in shock. A drone spotted him from above as he stalked under the branches of a tree. Some cheered him on in his quest for freedom; Others were simply impressed that he had been able to evade his finders for so long.

But on Thursday the search was over as animal keepers finally captured a monkey, days after it escaped from its enclosure at Highland Wildlife Park.

The Japanese macaque, which some have nicknamed 'Kingussie Kong', was captured and tranquilized on Thursday morning after a member of the public called a hotline to report it was eating from a bird feeder in their garden.

“The monkey is on its way back to the park with our keepers where it will be viewed by one of our veterinarians,” Keith Gilchrist, operations manager at Highland Wildlife Park, said in a statement, adding that it has been reintroduced into the park. troops of the park.

The monkey's real name, he added, was Honshu.

It was the denouement of a whirlwind that had engulfed – or at least amused – the world the communities of Kingussie and Kincraig in the Scottish highlands, where approximately 1,500 people live. Since the macaque went on the run, its fate had attracted reporters waiting nearby for updates on the monkey's location.

“Everyone is supporting this monkey,” said Carl Nagle, a Kincraig resident who spotted the monkey in his backyard on Sunday, apparently while snacking on more bird food. “He needs to have a good time and live his best life.”

For his part, Mr Nagle said he was “tremendously relieved” that the monkey had been caught, and told him to return to his troop. “It was five weird and wonderful days.”

He wondered if the monkey knew it was time to call off the gamble, as members of the national press had gathered near the park. “This is ridiculous – and yet somehow it is perfect,” Mr Nagle said.

“He's going to go home and we're all going to look at each other and say, why are we here?”

The Japanese macaque, also called snow monkey, is native to Japan, where the population has recovered in recent years. Park authorities had done that warned the public to report sightings and not approach the animal, and to keep food sources contained, but added that he was not “suspected to be dangerous.”

He was one of them a pack of more than 30 animals at Highland Wildlife Park, and park officials had done so told the BBC that the monkey may have run away after tensions during the breeding season.