A red panda which gained island fame for escaping his enclosure at Curraghs Wildlife Park has safely returned home.

The Park’s team are glad to have Kush back following his exit after a fallen tree branch created a bridge over his enclosure wall more than two weeks ago.

As of this afternoon, the red panda was returned to his home after he was spotted in a tree in someone’s garden at Tholt Y Will.

General Park manager, Kathleen Graham, said: ’It’s a delight and a relief to have him back.

’He looks fairly well, but may have lost a bit of weight. He’s now in the hospital unit where we will check his eating and to see if he’s healthy to go back into the enclosure.’

At approximately 1.30pm this afternoon (Monday) the Park received calls about Kush being spotted with people directing the team to someone’s garden where he was seen in a tree.

Isolating branches to prevent him from making another escape, the team used a fireman’s net for him to climb into before he was safely moved into a box. He made his grand return at 3pm today.

The Park manager said for him to be spotted a number of times near human activity showed he was looking to come back.

’He was possibly quite hungry and looking for safety,’ she said.

’The pandas are an endangered species and we recently raised £2,100 for International Red Panda Day and to have him go not long after that was a kick to the stomach.

’We’re really relieved and the team did wonderfully as well as our neighbour who helped us. We’re glad to have him home’