John Culatto
CALLS to name the Gibraltar macaque that escaped to Spain on Tuesday have increased as vets work out a way on how to control him.
The seven to eight-year-old macaque was tracked by both Guardia Civil, National and Local police agents until his capture.
Finally, a tranquilliser shot from vet Mark Pizarro ended his solo invasion of Spain, where he clambered across buildings and evaded capture for several hours.
Police agents finally plucked him out of a tree where he had lain to rest after getting sedated.
Now, Gibraltarians have started a quest to name the mischievous monkey.
Some of the ideas put forward include The Fugitive, Harrison Ford, Tintin or Tarik, after the Moors who first brought the macaques over from present-day Morocco.
For the moment though, vets are keeping the rebel male monkey fed and rested at their premises while they wonder why he left Gibraltar.
Vets now plan to microchip and tattoo him before releasing him into his pack while hoping he will not try the feat again.
Pizarro told the national broacaster how ‘elated’ the different groups that helped capture the viral sensation were when it all ended.
“We were dealing with a major political issue,” he said on a GBC radio Gibraltar Today.
“If we hadn’t darted it, this monkey could have ended up further inland.
“It wasn’t looking at all to come back to Gibraltar – the movement of the monkey was away from Gibraltar all the way.”
This is the first known case of a Gibraltar monkey escaping the Rock and heading to Spain in recent history.
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