Improved weather allows drone to resume search for missing monkey
The Japanese macaque, who has been nicknamed Kingussie Kong, escaped his enclosure at Highland Wildlife Park at the weekend.
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A drone is again being used to search for a monkey which escaped from a wildlife park four days ago.
Experts were able to follow the progress of the Japanese macaque for 45 minutes using a drone on Tuesday with help from BH Wildlife Consultancy, and said he appeared to be making his way closer to Highland Wildlife Park.
However they were unable to use the device on Wednesday due to high winds, with a yellow weather warning in place in the area.
A drone is being used again on Thursday and keepers will be hoping to catch a glimpse of the monkey and then work out how to retrieve him.
Keith Gilchrist, living collections operations manager at the wildlife park, said: “Our teams are back out again today along with BH Wildlife Consultancy using the drone to try and locate the monkey.
“We’re continuing to ask locals to please bring any obvious potential food sources like bird feeders or food waste inside.
“Although the macaque is not presumed dangerous to humans or pets, our advice is to not approach him but to contact our hotline on 07933 928 377 with any sightings.”
The macaque left the wildlife park near Kingussie on Sunday after finding a way out of his enclosure.
Drone footage captured on Tuesday showed him roaming about underneath trees and sitting in undergrowth to have a look about before loping off.
However the monkey, which has been nicknamed Kingussie Kong, was not in a position from which keepers could retrieve him that day.
The macaque was around 300 metres (roughly 980ft) north of the entry to the park in the footage captured on Tuesday.
The Japanese macaque, also known as the snow monkey, is the most northerly living non-human primate, according to the Royal Zoological Society Scotland.
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