GOING WILD: ‘Softly, softly catchee monkey’
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It’s fair to say that it’s been an unusual week at Highland Wildlife Park, with the discovery on Sunday that one of our male Japanese macaques, aka a ‘snow monkey’, was missing from the enclosure.
We don’t know for certain how the animal managed to escape or why, but our best guess is that it’s probably something to do with the fact that is approaching breeding season, and the young or ‘sub-adult’ male has possibly tried to stake its claim for breeding rights, and when that was unsuccessful has been able to scale the fence.
As you can imagine, we have procedures in place for all kinds of scenarios at the park, and this was no different.
Shortly after confirming that our macaque was missing, and seeing some of the footage of sightings in the nearby Kincraig village, we assembled a team of keepers together and called in our thermal imaging drone contractor to aid with the search.
We also set up a hotline for people to call if they had any further sightings and set up a baiting station with a humane trap near the location where the now-famous video of the monkey raiding a bird feeder was filmed.
In spite of some positive developments on Sunday, we soon had to call the search off for the evening due to the failing light.
Monday brought with it more sightings, and a good response to our request that local residents take steps to ensure there are no obvious potential food sources, like bird feeders, or food waste bins available for the monkey to raid.
The rationale being that he is more likely to try to return to the park, should he get hungry.
I mentioned that our team of animal keepers and rangers have been patrolling the local area throughout the week, to speak with the local community to gather intel and – where necessary – request permission to search people’s land.
They were ably supported in those searches by Ben Harrower from BH Wildlife Consultancy, who uses state-of-the-art thermal imaging drone technology to search vast areas pinpoint even the smallest of animals in the densest of woodland areas.
On Tuesday, we were able to utilise a second thermal imaging drone, courtesy of the Cairngorms Mountain Rescue team who very generously offered their time and expertise.
By strange coincidence, one member of their team, Willie Anderson, happens to be the brother of one of the world’s foremost experts on macaque monkeys, Professor James Anderson of Kyoto University. It’s a small world...
Despite all these efforts, by close of play on Tuesday we have been unable to retrieve the macaque, but we’ve been encouraged by the increasing number of sightings near the park itself – including by some of our own keepers. It looks very much like he could be trying to get back home, where he knows there is food and shelter.
Although it has been a very stressful time, the dedication of our charity’s teams, who have been working tirelessly to ensure the macaque’s safe return and the response of the local community, with many people getting in touch to offer their help or support, hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Ultimately our concern is of course for the welfare of the animal. We are optimistic, however, as these animals are acclimatised to live in very cold winter conditions. Promisingly, the sightings seem to suggest that he’s heading back home.
• Keith Gilchrist is living collections operations manager at the Highland Wildlife Park
