The Maersk container vessel, Eugen Maersk, was host to some stowaways earlier this month.
The vessel, which departed Malaysia bound for the Netherlands, was en route when five monkeys were discovered using shipping containers for their own amusement.
The cheeky stowaways are likely to include one older male, one younger male, two females and one infant. The ships crew took photos of the monkeys and sent them to the Copenhagen Zoo, who determined their species to be Long Tailed Macaque monkeys.
The zoo experts informed the crew on how to feed and care for their new friends and with that knowledge they lured the monkeys into a makeshift cage.
Maersk senior press Officer Michael Christian Storgaard admitted it was “a challenge” for the crew to build a cage and figure out how to take care of the monkeys, but they would never have thought of doing anything less.
It is unclear how the monkeys came aboard the vessel (the Eugen Maersk can take up to 14,000 twenty foot containers). Upon the vessel’s arrival in Rotterdam, the stowaways will be handed over to the Dutch Monkey Foundation (yup – we’re not kidding), and from there it will be decided on whether they will remain in the Netherlands at a zoo or be returned to Malaysia.
Image credits: vesseltracker.com & abcnews
