Film star monkey bites make up artist's ear near Pirates of the Caribbean set

A make up artist today had her ear bitten in an “unprovoked attack” by a monkey from the Pirates of the Caribbean, the Gold Coast Bulletin reported.

The attack happened at the Movie World sound studios on the Gold Coast.

An ambulance was called at midday to reports of a woman in her 50s who had been bitten on the ear by a monkey.

The animal — a capuchin monkey who plays Jack, the pet of Captain Barbossa, who is played by Australian actor Geoffrey Rush in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales — is believed to have wandered off from the set and attacked the victim, who is a Mako Mermaids make up artist, while she was sitting down at a nearby sound stage.

She was was taken by ambulance to Allamanda Private Hospital at Southport. The wound was described as "not serious" but she is awaiting test results to see if she contracted any disease.

Queensland Ambulance Service senior operations supervisor Stephen Burns said: "The monkey had come up from behind the lady and bit her on her right ear.

"They lady wasn't, we believe, making an attempt to approach the monkey, she was sitting down and it came up to the woman and bit her on the ear.

"Her bleeding was controlled.

"Fortunately it was not [a serious injury] and we were able to manage it quiet well."

He added that a registered nurse on the scene confirmed the monkey had received "all the necessary vaccinations" to safely be in Australia.

Filming for the fifth instalment in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has been riddled with problems. Depp was forced to fly back to the US for surgery following an off set accident to his hand, tropical cyclone Nathan disrupted second unit photography and earlier this month filming was moved to Raby Bay because conditions on the Gold Coast became too rough.