When it comes to monkey business, a stolen animal is a life and death matter and zookeepers stick together.
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“Fantastic,” was Sally Padey’s response to the news a monkey stolen from a neighbouring zoo in Nowra this week had been found safe.
“It is a wonderful outcome and I am very pleased for them,” the Mogo Zoo owner said yesterday.
Lake Illawarra police allegedly found Cheeky “free ranging” in a bedroom of a Koonwarra home on Monday after a tipoff.
The female marmoset was separated from its twin after a break-in at Nowra Wildlife Park in the early hours of Sunday morning.
A 20-year-old woman was arrested at the scene and charged with having stolen goods in custody. She was granted conditional bail and will appear before Wollongong Local Court on December 7.
Meanwhile, Queensland police are continuing investigations into the theft of two endangered cotton-top tamarins from a zoo in October. One was later found beaten to death but a pregnant female has not been found and the zoo holds little hope for her safe recovery.
On May 30 eight monkeys were taken from the Illawarra’s Symbio Wildlife Park. Four were later left at an Auburn veterinary surgery and three were dumped in parkland. One remains missing.
Shafi Ibrahim, 18, faced Parramatta Local Court on two charges of disposing of property through theft and a charge of concealing a serious indictable offence.
He has pleaded not guilty.
In 2004 one of Mogo Zoo’s own cotton-top tamarins was stolen, 16-year-old Larry, who was one of the zoo’s oldest and most loved residents. He was never found.