Headline of the week

 

From The Guardian in the UK:

Missing monkey trapped by yorkshire pudding in Scotland

I did a double-take when I read that, imagining a sentient animal-trapping Yorkshire pudding sneaking up on an unsuspecting simian.  Turns out it was simpler than that.

Two pebbly droppings deposited on her patio are all that Stephanie Bunyan has to remind her of Thursday morning’s celebrity guest. Honshu the missing macaque was finally captured in Bunyan’s garden after five days and four nights on the run and after drone search technology was rendered useless by blustery weather. In the end, it was the yorkshire pudding that got him.

Bunyan likes to drink her morning coffee looking out on to her peaceful terraced garden, which is decorated with tinkling wind chimes and boasts an array of bird feeders.

There were peanuts in the feeders but on Wednesday night she put out some leftover yorkshire pudding. In the morning it was gone. And just after 10am “there he was at the top of the steps, looking in the window”.

The desire to capture her visitor on camera was powerful but she knew she had to get hold of Highland wildlife park straight away. Within 10 minutes of her call to its dedicated monkey hotline, the search drone operators had arrived, and minutes later the park keepers.

By then the macaque was hopping back and forth off the low roof of her sun room and playing in the gutters. It took some time for the rangers to line up their desired tranquilliser dart shot – when one attempt failed, the macaque “bit it and threw it away”, Bunyan said.

But the next shot was true and the doped monkey was whisked away for examination by the park’s vet.

There's more at the link.

I still think a sentient, predatory Yorkshire pudding would have been more fun . . . something like the Goon Show's 1955 "International Christmas Pudding" episode!

Peter