THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A heroic effort from G Shaiju, a keeper at the Thiruvananthapuram zoo, on Tuesday saw him nabbing from atop a 25-metre-high mahogany tree one of the three gray langurs that had escaped on Monday morning.
While one returned voluntarily to its open enclosure, the third female monkey is still perched atop a tree, enjoying its newfound freedom.
A resident of Panacode in Nedumangad, Shaiju was determined to nab the elusive monkeys after they gave a sleepless night to the zoo authorities on Monday.
When one of the three female gray langurs returned famished, the 42-year-old was waiting for an opportunity to catch the other monkeys.
Interestingly, Shaiju is not in charge of looking after the gray langurs but of the black buck deer population.
He told TNIE that it was a challenge to climb the huge mahogany tree, but decided to take a risk. “I jumped at the opportunity to climb the tree as the gray langurs had given all of us a hard time. Fortunately, it didn’t jump to the next tree and I somehow managed to catch her. I was not carrying any net and caught the monkey with my hands,” Shaiju said.
Thiruvananthapuram Museum and Zoo director P S Manjula Devi was beaming with pride when one of the monkeys returned to the open enclosure as she realised that the remaining two could eventually follow. But when that did not happen, Shaiju along with two other keepers – M Ramachandran and K Subhash, who care for tigers and Indian bisons respectively – decided to act.
Manjula said her keepers will try their best to lure the third gray langur into its enclosure.
“By the time the second monkey was caught, dusk had fallen. So we were forced to postpone our rescue mission to Wednesday morning. Hats off to Shaiju who took up a challenging and risky mission to nab the second monkey,” Manjula said.