Escaped Manx mongoose Gef recaptured at brewery 17 miles from home

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The yellow mongoose was safely returned Curraghs Wildlife Park on Tuesday

A missing yellow mongoose has been caught at a brewery 17 miles from its home at a wildlife park on the Isle of Man.

The small carnivorous mammal, nicknamed Gef in a nod to Manx folklore, disappeared last month from Curraghs Wildlife Park in Ballaugh and was found in the grounds of Heron & Brearley brewery on the Old Castletown Road in Kewaigue.

Gef will now spend time in the sanctuary's quarantine facility, ahead of plans to find the nine-month-old mongoose a female mate at another zoo.

Conservationists said they were "very relieved" that Gef was "safe and looked well" after his adventure.

The wildlife park's manager, Kathleen Graham, said Gef had burrowed out of the northern wildlife park "before TT began" in late May

Wildlife officers "looked everywhere and there was no sight of him" at the enclosure, she said.

They were then "surprised" to receive a tip-off from a resident in Union Mills who had spotted a mongoose in their garden.

Native to southern Africa and sometimes nicknamed the red meerkat, mongooses can "cover distance and move very fast", Ms Graham said.

"Animals will escape, if they have the motivations to... I think he was highly motivated to go and find a female."

Gef the mongoose was tracked down at at brewery in Kewaigue

Gef was next spotted in the National Sport Centre car park in Douglas, before being recaptured using traps at the brewery, the park manager said.

"You couldn't make it up," she joked.

"Some people have said 'keep him here', but we think he wants to go", Ms Graham said.

"In all honestly there's a lot of dangers out there and we'll find him a nice home and a nice female, so he will have a happy ending."

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