A young macaque that escaped from a wildlife park near Lake Constance in southern Germany was caught in an apple tree at a camping area after spending a night out on the loose, park manager Roland Hilgartner told dpa on Saturday.
The Barbary macaque managed to leave its enclosure at the Salem Monkey Mountain wildlife park and had last been spotted near a motorway by the town of Uhldingen-Mühlhofen. Hilgartner said he believes the macaque managed to jump from tree to tree in order to clear the fence around the enclosure.
“If they’re a bit sporty, they can jump over there,” he said.
On Friday, the police and Monkey Mountain staff tried to lure the young animal from a tree with food, but the primate fled into a larger wooded area.
On Saturday, people spotted the macaque and informed the police, said Hilgartner.
“No animal has ever been this far away,” said Hilgartner, who has worked at the park for 17 years.
The enclosure fence is designed in such a way that it is very difficult for the animals to get outside, but they can climb back into the enclosure from the outside. Hilsgartner said it is common for macaques who get out to come back.
“The pressure to be with the group, in familiar surroundings, is great,” he said.
He earlier told dpa that macaques could survive well outside the wildlife park, at least for the time being, as animal keepers only need to feed the primates during the winter. There is plenty of plant food and the animals also eat insects, he said.
The flora and fauna on both sides of the fence are no different, Hilgartner said, “and they might even find an apple or two in the orchards.”
The grey-brown Barbary macaques come from mountainous regions of Morocco and Algeria and are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List for threatened species.
According to the park, the global population of Barbary macaques is estimated to be fewer than 8,000.
On Monkey Mountain, almost 200 animals live in a 20-hectare wooded area as they would in the wild. Visitors can walk through the enclosure and get quite close to the animals.
