AFTER spending years apart, a Dudley zoo keeper has been reunited with the monkey she helped to raise.

Jodie Dryden formed a close bond with Tambo, a Sulawesi black crested macaque, when she worked at Drusillas Park in East Sussex.

She said: “I can remember waiting for him to be born, I had it all plotted out on a little graph. I couldn’t wait for him to get here.

"It was a really special moment when we welcomed him to the world.”

In 2015, the pair were torn apart when Jodie made the decision to move back home to Dudley and joined Dudley Zoo as a senior primate keeper, looking after a new family of macaques.

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But their paths have now crossed again as Tambo (pictured above) is ready to start a family of his own.

As his father, Moteck, was the dominant breeding male in their group, the six-year-old had to move on and discover his own bevvy of females.

When keepers at Drusillas Park were deciding where to send Tambo, Dudley Zoo sprung to mind as it had not only recently invested in a state-of-the-art macaque enclosure, but there was also a familiar face heading up its primate section.

Luckily, Dudley had space in their enclosure and Jodie was ecstatic at the prospect of being reunited with Tambo.

Buzzing with excitement, Jodie went to pick up her former charge this morning (Thursday) to bring him to his new home.

She said: “It’s so wonderful to see him again after a few years! It’s great to see him as a healthy happy adolescent.

"It’s amazing to be part of Tambo’s adventure and I am so grateful that I have another opportunity to be part of his life.”

Drusillas’ deputy head keeper, Sophie Leadbitter, who assisted with the transfer, added: “We are really sad to see Tambo go, but he’s going to be in the best hands."