In southern Germany, a macaque was still on the run on Saturday.
The Barbary macaque escaped from the Salem Monkey Mountain wildlife park in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. Park director Roland Hilgartner assumes that the animal managed to jump from tree to tree to escape.
“Anyone who is a bit sporty can jump over there,” he says.
I have never been so far away from home
The animal, which is listed as critically endangered on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), was last seen on Friday morning on a roadside near the town of Uhldingen-Mühlhofen, about 3.5 kilometers from the wildlife park.
“No animal has ever been so far away” from the wildlife park, said Hilgartner, who has worked at Salem Monkey Mountain for 17 years.
The enclosure’s fence is designed in such a way that it is very difficult for the animals to get out, but it is easier for them to climb back into the enclosure. Hilsgartner said it is common for escaped macaques to return at some point.
“The pressure to be with the group in familiar surroundings is great,” he said.
However, he believes that the macaque could survive well outside the wildlife park, at least for the time being, since the zookeepers would only have to feed the animal, which traditionally lives in the mountainous regions of Morocco and Algeria, in winter.
There is plenty of plant food and the animals also feed on insects, he said, adding: “Maybe they’ll even find an apple or two in the orchards.”
Less than 8,000 macaques left
On Friday, police and Monkey Mountain staff tried to lure the young animal down from a tree by offering it food as an incentive, but the primate fled into a larger forest area.
“The population of Barbary macaques living in the wild is estimated at less than 8,000. The Affenberg Salem is committed to protecting the Barbary macaques,” says the wildlife park’s website.
The park is located near Lake Constance in southern Germany and the macaques “feel really comfortable and spend the whole year outside. They move freely and maintain their natural behavior. Almost 200 Barbary macaques live here in a 20-hectare forest area. The babies are born from spring onwards,” the website continues.
In writing this article, material from the German news agency DPA was used.
Edited by: Wesley Dockery
