Baboon loose in wilds of Ayrshire
By Jim McBeth and Campbell Thomas in the Scotsman, 18 th January 1998
In the past, the best Ayrshire could claim in the way of bizarre, inexplicable creatures was a puma-like big cat and snatched sightings of local singer Sydney Devine in his white Elvis suit.
However, the locals can now add a new name to the canon of mysterious animals spotted in Scotland - the baboon.
The police yesterday confirmed that a baboon-like creature was on the loose. Apparently, it favours the Shaw Farm Road area of Prestwick.
The first alert came when a motorist reported a sighting of the creature. Two officers in a police patrol car were already in the area when the report was logged and they reached the scene in time to see the animal vanish into undergrowth 30 yards away.
Everyone is mystified including Richard O'Grady, the director of Glasgow Zoo, who said: "No zoo in Scotland keeps baboons so one cannot have escaped.
"The airport would have been a possibility, but if they had lost such a big animal, they would have reported it. There are too many things that can happen with an animal like that on the loose - rabies, for example."
A spokeswoman for Strathclyde Police said yesterday: "We received a call from a local man who said he'd narrowly avoided hitting the creature on Shaw Farm Road. A patrol car was sent and after a search of the area the officers reported seeing the animal.
"We have made a number of local inquiries and we are certainly treating the matter seriously. Inquiries were also made at the airport, which had received a cargo of livestock, but there were no reports of escaped baboons.
"The officers were very careful how they phrased the sighting when they radioed in their response. The mickey-taking could have been merciless and they didn't want to make monkeys of themselves."
The police think that the creature may be an escaped pet, but Mr O'Grady said: "That is unlikely. Baboons are large aggressive creatures, and I wonder whether a layman could differentiate between a young or female baboon and another type of monkey, such as a cappucin."
© Scotsman, January 18th, 1999
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