A runaway monkey causes excitement in the Scottish Highlands. The Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata) escaped from a zoo at the weekend and was spotted several kilometers away in the village of Kincraig. “A team of experienced zookeepers from our charity are combing the village today to locate and bring back the macaque that escaped yesterday,” said Darren McGarry from the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, which runs the Highland Wildlife Park. The monkey probably poses no danger to people or pets. However, you should not approach it.
A local resident filmed the animal in his garden. Carl Nagle told the BBC that he had spent a lazy morning reading about the escaped monkey in a local Facebook group. “I looked out the window – and there he was, proud as Oscar, standing at the fence and eating nuts that had fallen from a bird feeder.” The monkey was hanging around there and eventually climbed onto the birdhouse and tried to get in. “He gave it his all, he worked harder than a squirrel,” Nagle said. Eventually he moved on to neighbors.
The zoo keeps “a large group” of Japanese macaques, also known as snow monkeys. The specimens from Yamanouchi in the Japanese prefecture of Nagano are world famous. The wild snow monkeys come down from the mountains every year in the winter months to bathe in hot springs.
