Couple find ‘Gremlins’-style monkey watching television
A marmoset monkey with a striking resemblance to Gizmo, the mogwai creature from the film “Gremlins”, is safe and well after being found by a young couple watching TV in their living room a week after escaping from a safari park.
Eighteen-year-old Gemma Peck and boyfriend Colin Hinder spotted the monkey, called Kite, sitting on a curtain rail in the corner of the room watching breakfast television – and at first mistook the tiny primate for a pigeon. With their big fluffy white ears and large brown eyes, see picture above, marmosets also bear a passing resemblance to mogwai – which turn nasty if fed after dark.
“Gemma was sat on the sofa right beneath the curtain rail eating her breakfast when I saw something move up there. She has a phobia of pigeons so I told her to move quick,” 21-year-old Colin told the Daily Telegraph.
“We looked back to work out what it was and even though I could see it was a monkey my brain just would not process it. It just sat there looking at us and blinking.”
Gemma’s mum, Jean Peck, said she believed the monkey had climbed a drainpipe and got into the house through an open bedroom window.
“I got home two minutes after they found it. It was a tiny little thing just a bit bigger than a squirrel with white fluffy ears and bright eyes,” she said.
“It was used to people and quite happy up there. Every time someone spoke it would turn its head to look and listen. I was almost tempted to keep it but there is a time and a place for pets.”
Jean then called nearby Woburn Safari Park, which confirmed the ape was one of two believed to have escaped last week, apparently by scaling an eight-foot wall and crossing a main road.
In a statement, Woburn confirmed the other marmoset, Ponty, was still missing but said it was likely the monkey was still within the boundaries of the Woburn Estate.
“As the marmosets at Woburn Safari Park are free ranging animals, it is not unusual that they forage in the woods within the park for several days at a time, benefiting from the perfect habitat they have available at the park,” the statement said.
The park’s Head of Animals and Conservation, Jake Veasey, said the escape was unprecedented but said the missing monkey was not a danger to the public – providing it wasn’t provoked.
“These monkeys do not pose a risk to the public, and although they will defend themselves if approached, we regularly screen them for diseases potentially transferable to humans.
“Marmosets live on insects and Ponty was probably following these insects in the hedgerows and woodland around Woburn Safari Park when she got lost.”