Kids may sometimes land themselves in trouble because they were mischievous. Well, kid animals are no different.
On 11 Oct, a baby macaque named Plushie was playing around Bukit Batok when he accidentally got his head stuck in a fence.
Ouch.
Well, our office’s in Bukit Batok and we’ve never come across one before. Maybe just like humans, animals hate us as well.
But anyways, thankfully, he was saved by the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES) who then uploaded a video of the rescue operation to their Facebook group.
Trapped
The video shows that the little macaque was terribly frightened as seen from how he fumbled trying to pull his head out of the fence to no avail.
ACRES originally came down after a call from a worried teacher at a child development centre nearby who saw Plushie struggling.
Parents To The Rescue
Plushie’s mother was seen trying to pull on the metal fence in order to free her child, but sadly, she wasn’t strong enough to help her kid.
Meanwhile, it was noted that there was an alpha male macaque, watching the whole scene go down, waiting to jump in if anything happened.
ACRES staff took that into account when handling the situation, worried that their rescue mission would alert and scare the other macaques.
Two staff members were allocated to watch out for the reactions of the macaques and keeping them calm.
Attempts To Free Plushie
Originally, the plan was to try to slowly squeeze Plushie’s head out of the gap of the fence, but after trying for a while, there was no progress.
Seeing that the macaques around were getting anxious, the team decided to switch tactics.
So, they decided to pull out a hammer to slowly bend the bars around Plushie’s head. The team worked fast but gently, afraid that they might hurt Plushie if they weren’t careful enough.
Thankfully, it worked and soon, Plushie was free!
Just look at that relieved face.
Back To His Family
Plushie looked a little rattled by the whole incident and as soon as he was freed; he was seen scurrying back to the other macaques to get comfort from his family.
The baby macaque was then seen being welcomed back by his parents who were waiting for him anxiously. Awww. Cute as cats.
While ACRES notes that long-tailed macaques are not unusual in this part of Singapore due to its proximity to nature, this was the first time such a case has occurred.
We just hope that Plushie has learnt his lesson and that he won’t be monkeying around in unfamiliar territories by himself again. Geddit? Monkeying?
