A mongoose who escaped from the Curragh’s Wildlife Park before the TT has been spotted 16 miles away on the outskirts of Douglas.

The yellow mongoose, nicknamed Gef, was last seen on Monday afternoon by a forklift truck driver on a industrial estate.

He said he saw it cross the road, run across the yard and through the fence at the back before disappearing behind the commercial unit next door.

Gef had previously been spotted at an another industrial estate and before that in a garden in Union Mills.

Wildlife Park general manager Kathleen Graham said: ‘We were initially surprised at how far he had gone. But they do travel quite far in the wild to find new territory and a mate. We’ve nicknamed him Gef - what else are you going to call him?!

‘We have keepers going down twice a day to check live traps and we know where he has been the last few days.’

Gef is one of two yellow mongoose pups born at the end of September last year.

The escapee is thought to have burrowed his way out of his enclosure.

Kathleen said: ‘In the enclosure they need to be able to do natural behaviours like make burrows and they do make small hidey holes around the enclosure.

‘The boundary is under-wired by 2m. However it would seem he burrowed a very long tunnel from much further back, so it wasn’t identified until he was gone.’

She said the other pup and their mother had also escaped through the tunnel but were found running around trying to get back into the enclosure.

‘We had been trying to catch the young in a very kennel in the enclosure for a while so we could sex and make decisions on the future of the group. They are pretty bright, pretty canny and don’t like being trapped,’ she said.

‘The other youngster is a female - we now know as we managed to catch her - but I think he is most likely a male and has been motivated to “move on” and look for a female.

She added: ‘We hope to get him back to the park safe and well, where we will then hopefully secure him a home in another zoo and a female!’

Gef is not the first resident at the Curraghs attraction to make his bid for freedom.

In 2019 charismatic red panda Kush shot to fame after escaping from his enclosure twice in four months, finally being recaptured for a second time in January 2020.