Of­fi­cials at the Em­per­or Val­ley Zoo suc­cess­ful­ly cap­tured a mon­key that was roam­ing around Mar­aval Road, Port-of-Spain, and the sur­round­ing ar­eas on Wednes­day.

The zoo, in a Face­book post yes­ter­day, said the an­i­mal does not be­long to the Zo­o­log­i­cal So­ci­ety of T&T. It said it re­ceived calls from con­cerned cit­i­zens stat­ing that the an­i­mal was on the loose in the area.

There were re­ports on so­cial me­dia that the mon­key made its way in­side a ve­hi­cle and “fought” with a woman in­side the car. Those claims were not men­tioned by the zoo.

In­stead, it said two zookeep­ers were dis­patched and re­trieved the mon­key from the carpark of a build­ing on Sweet Bri­ar Road. Up­on ex­am­i­na­tion at the zoo, staff dis­cov­ered a col­lar tight­ly fas­tened around the mon­key’s waist, which was im­me­di­ate­ly re­moved.

The an­i­mal, the re­lease said, is now safe­ly housed at the Em­per­or Val­ley Zoo.

Zoo of­fi­cials em­pha­sised that they do not place col­lars or belts on an­i­mals. The mon­key’s own­er is cur­rent­ly un­known, but the Em­per­or Val­ley Zoo said the own­er may claim the an­i­mal if they can pro­vide a cur­rent per­mit is­sued by the Forestry Di­vi­sion.