Escaped monkey from Beekse Bergen gets caught after month on the run
A 4-year-old male crested mangabey that escaped from the Safaripark Beekse Bergen last month is back in the Hilvarenbeek park. Staff could not catch the monkey for around a week until it walked into a trap cage set up as part of the search, Omroep Brabant reported.
Caretakers looked hard for him for weeks. He was in no rush to come back. The woods around the park gave him plenty to live on in summer. “There is enough foliage in the trees and there are enough insects in the ground,” one of his caretakers told Omroep Brabant earlier.
Staff put up cameras over 100 hectares to watch where the monkey went. They used the video to find his paths and put trap cages on those routes. They baited the cages with fresh food. Now and then they also played sounds of his own group on a speaker, hoping the noise would draw him in.
A month later, it worked. The monkey will now get a medical check and stay in quarantine for the next 30 days. After that he goes to a zoo in Germany. That move was already set before he escaped.
Martin van Hees, the park’s zoological manager, said he is glad the animal came back healthy. “We want to thank everyone who has made reports over the past weeks and has been involved in the search.”
The crested mangabeys at Beekse Bergen live on an island. Staff believe this one swam across the moat to get out—something the park thought monkeys could not do.
A park spokesperson said the enclosure does not need changes. “This was an exception. It is an approved enclosure; it meets all guidelines and we assume it will not happen again.”
