DANVILLE— Could the elusive monkey that made national headlines when it was spotted hanging out in the trees of Danville 11 years ago be swinging through town once again?

Police doubt that the Capuchin monkey is still around after all these years, but on Thursday they received a report from a Cobblers Ridge resident who claims to have seen what appeared to be a monkey climbing a tree.

The resident wasn’t exactly sure of the animal’s type, but told police it also could have been a bear.

Police Chief Wade Parsons wasn’t sure what to make of the latest possible sighting.

“We haven’t had any official monkey sightings since 2001, but I suppose anything is possible,” he said.

Animal Control Officer Brian Farrell is now checking out the report to make sure no one’s monkeying around.

“That’s a pretty far leap between a bear and a monkey. I’m assuming it was probably a porcupine or a raccoon,” Farrell said Friday.

The monkey was the talk of the town in late August 2001 when it was first seen by the town’s former fire chief and residents of Spruce Road and other nearby neighborhoods.

No one knew how the monkey ended up in the woods here, but everyone wanted to find it.

A three-month search turned up nothing, even after bananas were stuck on tree limbs, traps were set out with marshmallow Fluff and Reese’s peanut butter cups, and a local radio DJ threw on a gorilla suit in hopes of attracting the monkey.

Much of the media attention on the monkey search disappeared when terrorists struck on Sept. 11, 2001, just minutes before the town’s animal control officer at the time, Denise Laratonda, was scheduled for an interview on NBC’s “Today” show.

Farrell had not spoken with the person who reported the sighting this week, but he remembers the monkey story well. He heard a lot about it on the news and from his friends from Danville and Kingston who joined the hunt.

No one knows what happened to the monkey, but Farrell has a theory. “It either died or the owner found it before anything happened,” he said.

Cobblers Ridge resident Shawn Burke has lived in Danville for 15 years and will never forget the monkey madness, but he’s convinced that this week’s sighting was probably just a bear.

Burke said he’s heard a lot of talk lately about a bear roaming around the area recently.

Still, the thought of the “Danville monkey” returning made Burke laugh.

“It was kind of crazy,” he said. “I think it was the first time I saw our town on TV.”

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Jason Schreiber may be reached at jschreiber@newstote.com.