Adorable Baby Monkey Rides On His Tiger Cub BFF's Back At Zoo

Nov 29, 2020 by apost team

One adventurous four-month-old macaque is making rounds on the internet after a video of him going on a piggyback ride on a three-month-old tiger went viral this month. The footage was filmed at the Hengshui Wildlife Park in northern China's Hebei Province, where the two animals reside, and has garnered over 200,000 views in less than two weeks. 

A four-month-old macaque named Ban Jin – which means half a kilogram in Chinese – was filmed hitching a ride on its kitty pal, a three-month-old tiger named September. The video was posted by Hengshui Wildlife Park on Douyin, the Chinese equivalent to the famous online video sharing platform, TikTok. 

The two baby animals were born around the same time and have struck up a unique bond as the keepers let them play together. Speaking to MailOnline, Ms. Dai, a manager at the park, says that the two enjoy each other's company. "They like to spend time together," she says. "We would let them play together sometimes." But they were not always close. Being a monkey, Ban Jin was initially wary of September, a tiger, albeit a baby one: "At first, Ban Jin was quite afraid [of the tiger]. But they quickly became familiar with each other and are now best friends," Dai added.

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Ban Jin, rocking a diaper, is seen struggling to find his balance on September's back while a kiddy-sounding Chinese about "little animals" plays in the background. According to MailOnline, one viewer commented: "Ban Jin is getting bolder these days. Look how much he enjoys the piggyback!" while another person wrote: "What an adorable combo. The little monkey wants to play with the little tiger." 

In a re-post on Facebook, another viewer talked about how nice it is to see animals of different species getting along. "It's great to see different animals get along but why people can not do the same it's hard to understand it anyways that's life," wrote one David Commanda.

According to an organization in the United Kingdom, the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement, and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3RS), there are 22 species of the macaque. The animals are native to Southeast Asia, especially Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, the Philippines, the Nicobar Islands, and Bangladesh. According to a study by the University of Chicago, rhesus macaques are "one of the most successful primate species on our planet after humans.

Another clip by Spy in the Wild: Bad Behavior, a 2017 program by Nature on PBS, showed wild Macaque monkeys as they enjoyed a dive at a pool in India, and the resemblance of their behavior to that of a group of kids at a high diving board is quite remarkable. One of the monkeys even playfully pushed one hesitant peer after he held up the line for the rest of the eager divers.

It makes one wonder, did they copy human divers? Did their parents introduce them to the game, or did they stumble upon it accidentally? We know that human kids learn some stuff from us adults, but they discover other things by themselves, which tends to surprise us. They leave us wondering who on Earth taught them that and, who knows, maybe the parents of these Macaque monkeys are just as flabbergasted. They could have sat somewhere near a pool and seen how some human kids were doing it and noticed just how exciting it looked for those kids. From there, they probably decided to try it, and there was no going back.

The monkeys look as if they would not give up this fun-filled activity for anything else in the world. And that could explain why in this clip, they were diving in an outdoor fountain. For them, anywhere that they can dive is good enough. As long as it gives them an equal measure of fun, they will take their chances anywhere.

If only we were as spontaneous as our animal friends are. Their lives are so simple. They see a pool, and there is no thinking about getting into the right swimming clothes. For them, it is a matter of diving in, having fun, and when they are done, they shake the water off and run to the next pleasurable activity. Maybe we can find areas where we can relax the rules a bit too and enjoy ourselves without giving much thought. We wonder what sort of antics Ban Jin will get up to as he gets older!

What do you think was going through the mind of Ban Jin and September as they were playing? Let us know in the comments and be sure to pass this adorable video along to your loved ones to spread the joy!