An unusual intervention this Saturday for the Yvelines firefighters in Jouy-en-Josas. They were contacted at around 10:30 by the police, and were themselves summoned to the Traveler camp. Their mission: try to catch… a monkey.
The primate, the Magot – or Barbary Macaque – appears domesticated because it wears a collar and leash. But no one in the camp claimed ownership of it.
“Not something you do every day”
Firefighters called in a team that specializes in animal rescue. It took no less than two hours to finally catch the little monkey.
“It’s definitely easier to catch,” we explained to CODIS, the department’s fire and rescue operations center. This isn’t something we do every day, but we have women and men who are highly trained to do it. »
The animal was treated and examined by a veterinarian before being transported by firefighters to a zoological center located in Seine-et-Marne.
The magot is a monkey native to North Africa that is on the red list of endangered species. Nicknamed the “rapper monkey,” he was popular in the neighborhood in the 1990s and 2000s. Monkeys are still at the forefront of victims of money trading.
In 2022, firefighters in Val-d’Oise, in a similar manner, have captured a white-crowned marmoset, a monkey whose captivity is also illegal but is thought to be widespread.
