A runaway young macaque was on the loose in southern Germany near Lake Constance on Saturday and caused great excitement among the local population.

The Barbary macaque had escaped from the Salem Monkey Mountain wildlife park in the area. Park director Roland Hilgartner believes that the animal managed to jump from tree to tree to overcome the fence surrounding the enclosure.

“If they are a little more athletic, they can jump over there,” he said.

The animal was last seen on Friday morning on a roadside near the town of Uhldingen-Mühlhofen.

“Never before has an animal been so far away,” said Hilgartner, who has worked at the park for 17 years.

The enclosure’s 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 that escape from the enclosure to come back.

“The pressure to be with the group in familiar surroundings is great,” he said.

However, he believes that the unnamed macaque could survive well outside the wildlife park, at least for now, as zookeepers only have to feed the macaques in 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.”

On Friday, police and Monkey Mountain staff tried to lure the young animal down from a tree with food, but the primate fled into a larger forest area.

The grey-brown Barbary macaques come from the mountainous regions of Morocco and Algeria and are on the Red List of threatened species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

According to the park, the global population of Barbary macaques is estimated at fewer than 8,000 animals.

Almost 200 animals live in the 20-hectare forest area of ​​the monkey mountain, just as they would in the wild. Visitors can walk through the enclosure and get very close to the animals.